An official with Air Canada's regional carrier Jazz says
the airline is removing life vests from all its planes to save
weight and fuel.
Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stuart said Thursday that Transport
Canada regulations allow airlines to use flotation devices instead
of life vests, provided the planes remain within 50 miles of
shore.
Safety cards in the seat pockets of Jazz aircraft now direct
passengers to use the seat cushions as flotation devices.
Stuart says Jazz is a transcontinental carrier that doesn't fly
over the ocean.
Jazz planes do fly over the Great Lakes and along the Eastern
seaboard from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Boston, Massachusetts, and
to New York.
Stuart says all of Jazz's flights operate within 50 miles from
shore. She says the airline operates 880 flights daily to 85
destinations in North America and says the number of flights that
operate over water are minimal.
A commercial-style life vest weighs roughly a pound (half a
kilogram), meaning about 50 pounds (25 kilograms) would be saved by
removing them from a Dash-8 aircraft with 50 seats.
cnn.com