Airline Removes Life Vests to Save Weight and Fuel

MONTREAL - Air Canada Jazz has stripped the life vests from some of its planes to save weight and fuel — the latest sign of an industry measuring the cost of jet fuel in ounces.

The regional carrier said the move affects only flights that stay within 50 miles of shore, where regulations permit the seat cushions to serve as flotation devices. The vests weigh about a pound each; across a fleet and a year, the airline said, the fuel savings are real.

The disclosure drew predictable alarm and a hasty clarification from regulators that the practice, while unusual, is legal on qualifying routes.

It is the most visible of a hundred economies: airlines have lightened beverage carts, removed seatback phones, thinned their magazines, washed their engines more often and slowed their cruising speeds — all to burn less fuel.

"Passengers notice the $15 bag fee. They don't notice the 40-pound manuals replaced by laptops in the cockpit," an aviation consultant said. "Everything on an airplane is on a diet now."

The industry's fuel bill has roughly tripled since 2000. Even with oil off its July peak, fuel has passed labor as the airlines' largest cost.

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Associated Press writers contributed to this report.

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