American Airlines' 5 passenger 'eco-sin'
If I were an airline executive charged with making the decision to fly a Boeing 777 across the Atlantic carrying only 5 passengers, I sure wouldn't want anyone to find out about it -- but someone did. According to the Telegraph, American Airlines decided to go ahead with a seriously under-booked flight from Chicago to London in February and the feedback they're getting from environmentalists is nothing short of total outrage. The company's latest eco-sin puts them at the center of the debate about air travel and its disproportionate carbon emissions. In their defense, American Airlines burned the 22,000 gallons of jet-fuel in the name of customer service -- I guess that's the best thing I can say about it. Apparently, the airline had canceled a London bound flight earlier in the day and had found seats for all of the passengers except the 5, which were upgraded to business class on a totally empty plane. Why didn't they put them in first class then?
A representative from American said that they considered canceling the flight, "however, this would have left a plane load of west-bound passengers stranded in London Heathrow who were due to fly back to the US on the same aircraft." Interestingly enough, this news comes days after activists climbed onto Virgin's 1st-ever biofuel flight, protesting a 3rd runway at Heathrow.













