A6

Dan Benoit

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A lot of Canadians were feeling more than a little bit peeved last week when Air Canada announced it is removing life vests from its regional carrier aircraft to reduce weight and save on fuel costs.

But adding insult to injury, the airline, just days after announcing they were dumping the life preservers, also announced they would be installing in-flight Internet access.

Here's the injury.

A spokesperson for Air Canada Jazz said the regional carrier is removing life vests from all of its planes to save fuel. Canadian air regulations allow airlines to use floatation devices instead of life vests as long as the planes remain within 50 miles of shore. As of now, in the event of an emergency water landing, Jazz passengers must rely solely up their seat cushions for flotation. That is until some bright boy down at head office decides seat cushions are too heavy as well. Then we'll all be sitting on the floor.

Jazz is a transcontinental carrier and doesn't fly over the ocean, but I think the people who make such regulations should include large bodies of water in there too.

What if you're approaching the airport in Halifax or Vancouver and circling to land? That big body of water beneath you is very much an ocean. What if by chance the plane goes down 49 miles out? Or four? Either way, that's a hell of a swim.

Or what if the plane goes down in the Great Lakes? They're called great for a reason. That's cause they're big.

Or what about Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories? Looking out from the seat of an Air Canada Jazz flight last year, the lake stretched out in every direction for as far as I could see, and you can see pretty far from that high up. It might not be an ocean, but cold comfort that'll be when you're bobbing in the middle of what'll feel like one in the middle of the night, arms wrapped around a seat cushion to keep from drowning.

Now here's the insult.

Last Wednesday an Air Canada spokesperson said the national carrier was in talks with some in-flight Internet service providers. Air Canada, which has to absorb an extra burden of $1 billion this year due to high fuel costs, expects user-pay Internet service to make some serious bucks for the airline.

I've got nothing against the Internet, no sir. Not one bit. But I'd rather have a life vest under my seat while I'm surfing the net, thanks very much.

And I don't think I'm the only one who thinks announcing they'll be bringing in pay Internet the same week as announcing they'll be removing fundamental safety gear kinda gives the impression Air Canada doesn't give a second thought about their customers needs.

Hey, Air Canada! Wanna dump some dead weight?

Why not start at the top of your company? Make a few heads roll, starting with the ones that make multi-million-dollar-a-year salaries and leave the safety vests where they are.

Feedback? Contact Dan Benoit at streetwiseguy@hotmail.com.

Former Miramichi Leader reporter Dan Benoit is a Miramichier born and bred, currently working up north.