Lately I’ve been interested in the trend towards living a more "green" lifestyle and have been reading articles, reports and such. In many of these reports, there are references to travellers flying Coach instead of Business or First Class on commercial flights in order to be more "green". My question is: What is the connection between flying Coach and being more green? How does paying less money for airfare reduce pollutants and emmissions? Or am I missing a bigger picture here?
You are not missing anything. The plane is going to fly regardless. Makes not difference where you sit.
Well the most green choice is business or first because your average Coach seat weighs about 150 pounds, and in your average plane, there are about 100 to 150 seats, I mean your average first class or business class seat weighs 200 pounds, but too many passengers requires more engine power which requires more fuel burned because you have thousands and thousands of pounds, worth of seats and passengers that sit in them. But when you have first and busniess class you have just the right amount of fuel burned effeciently. Because the plane will weigh thousands of pounds lighter, than an all coach configuration, because you have fewer seats.
ok i could be wrong here but logically it seems that coach flights can fit many more people. you’re sitting on top of eachother, whereas in 1st class you have more room and therefore fewer people on each flight. so, if more people chose to fly coach perhaps it would influence the airlines to reduce the number of 1st class seats, eliminate them entirely, or make them more affordable and environment friendly? that’s my shot in the dark!
You fly coach class, and with the money saved you purchase carbon offset credits form Al Gores company, that will offset the carbon footprint of the jet, and will make it easier for you to sleep at night knowing global warming is someone else’s problem.
There is very little savings in flying Coach instead of Business of First Class on commercial flights. The big green savings is for people who fly private jets to fly commercially instead. The savings that would be gained are from more people being able to fit on the plan (more seats in coach rows) and less garbage produced from the extra frills in First Class that are not offered to Coach passengers.
Perhaps it saves money to spend on green causes?