COMFORT SACRIFICED FOR FUEL EFFICIENCY
COMFORT SACRIFICED FOR FUEL EFFICIENCY
If you are crammed into a shrinking airline seat in a cabin in which passengers are packed sardine-style, it might be comforting to know, at the very least, you are helping the environment.
The nation’s airlines gradually have improved fuel efficiency rates on a passenger-per-mile basis, according to an annual study that gives credit to the airline trend of increasingly squeezing more passengers per plane.
The bad news: Passenger comfort has been sacrificed for fuel efficiency, according to a study by the International Council on Clean Transportation, a nonprofit group that researches and promotes clean transportation efforts.
From 2011-12, the amount of fuel it took to transport a passenger 1 mile improved about 2 percent, partly because of improved technology in newer aircraft, according to the study. Fuel efficiency remained flat between 2012 and 2013 but began to improve between 2013 and 2014 as airlines began to squeeze in even more passengers, the study said.
The squeeze is expected to continue. The average wide-body plane will grow by about 20 seats during the next 20 years while the average single-aisle plane will grow by about 10 seats, according to aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co.
EXPEDIA ADDS DATA ON AIRLINE BAG FEES
One of the nation’s largest online travel search companies added a feature to make it easier for you to see the true cost of flying. But you still need to do some extra work to get the whole picture.
Expedia Inc., which operates such travel sites as Expedia.com, Orbitz.com and Travelocity.com, added a feature to all of its websites that displays in each travel search the fees airlines charge to check bags.
In the first six months of the year, the nation’s 14 largest airlines collected $1.8 billion in fees from checked bags, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
But Expedia still isn’t displaying all the other fees charged by airlines, such as charges for food, entertainment and access to Wi-Fi. A spokeswoman for Expedia said the company hopes to offer that information in the future.
All of those other fees add up to big numbers. In 2014, the world’s airlines raked in an estimated $38.1 billion in passenger fees and other revenue outside airfares, a 21 percent increase from the previous year, according to a report from IdeaWorks, a Wisconsin-based airline consulting firm.
CALIFORNIA STATE WORKERS CAN USE UBER, AIRBNB
Ride-sharing services such as Uber and short-term home rentals such as Airbnb might get a boost in business now that the state of California made it clear its employees can turn to such businesses when traveling for work.
Legislation written by Republican Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last month ensures the state’s 228,000 employees will be reimbursed for the cost of using the sharing-economy businesses for business travel. The legislation takes effect in January.
State law so far has been silent on whether state employees would be reimbursed for using such services, Chang said.
The lawmaker said she hopes the new law will save the state on travel costs. During the past three years, the state reimbursed employees nearly $110 million in travel costs.
Representatives for Chang said the amount of the savings will depend on how much workers rely on Uber, Airbnb and other sharing-economy services. But they noted some short-term home rental businesses can cut the cost of lodging by up to half compared to hotels.