In a post 9/11 world everything about air travel is safety. Long gone are the days of merely jumping on a plane, enjoying the ride and getting off once you get to your destination.
Rules and regulations have been written, rewritten and written again to ensure that every flight you take is safer than the previous one you just went on. For you as a consumer it may seem like a daunting process these days to get on and off (in some cases) a plane, but rest assure it is all necessary.
Just when you thought it was “only” terrorists you had to worry about, now federal regulators are concerned with the safety of your aircraft. So much so that they are trying to adopt measures to aid in preventing fuel tank explosions for commercial airlines. It is probably the last thing you would or you would want to think about when boarding a plane, but it is one of those things that needs to be addressed.
In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Christopher Conkey and Andy Pasztor reported, “the rules require new airlines to be equipped with nitrogen systems to prevent sparks or electrical short circuits from igniting hot vapors inside tanks.”
The measure is said these changes must be in place in newer plans within two years and in older planes within nine years. The estimated cost for this nitrogen system runs about one hundred thousand dollars (American) per plane.
This plan has been a twelve year battle between lawmakers and the airline industry to see that the nitrogen system gets implemented. Apparently the lawmakers have won, for now.
The airline industry which has been crying poverty for what seems to be its inception is against it not from a safety standpoint but a financial one. Leaving the consumer to think, what does the airline industry think my safety is worth?
If gas prices weren't making the cost of flights out of reach for most Americans, new rules and regulations in regards to safety will almost assuredly put that price over the top and definitely out of reach.
There is no telling what other regulations are in store for the airline industry but it is safe to say, no pun intended, that the safer you can maker air travel, the better it will be for the consumer, and I believe will help the industry in the long run.
