Airline passenger news and views

How many time have you heard cabin attendants ask people to "pay attention" to the flight safety demonstration and to read the leaflet "in the seat pocket in front of you"? - and how often do people actually take any damn notice?

My girlfriend used to be a trolley dolly (she will hate me for writing that) and even after five years flying she is one person I know that actually does take notice. She also always checks for the life vest under her seat. Apparently, these things do go missing and there is a, albeit small, risk that when the times comes, you may reach down and find an empty container.

Quite a few people in the airline safety business are saying that we need to change the way that we approach on-board safety. The risks of anything actually going wrong have been minimised by good operating procedures and passengers have become blasé.  Sadly, in the event of a real incident, despite everything that has been said, people just do not know what to do.

Some years ago, Virgin Atlantic introduced an animated cartoon safety briefing which was pretty good. It broke the mould a bit and made people take notice.  The trouble is that once you have seen it a couple of times you are back where you started.

So, enter Air New Zealand, the joyously light-touch airline that flies the UK - New Zealand routes.  They have produced an 'in-your-face', very hard to ignore safety video that is going live across their route structure this week. Will it solve the long-term problem of blasé passengers? - probably not but it is a good start.

Love it or hate it, and I think most will hate it, it is certainly going to get their full attention.  If the leaflet in "the seat pocket in front .."  is anywhere near as good, then they will soon become collectors' items.

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