17 January 2007
Expiration dates to be displayed on airliners
FAA rule will take effect next month
 WASHINGTON,
DC -- Airlines continue to be squeezed by high fuel prices, by personnel
costs and by pressure from competitors. To survive, many carriers have chosen to
delay replacing their aging fleets with newer-model aircraft.
While it is true that the life of commercial airplanes can be extended nearly
indefinitely through rigorous maintenance programs, small, undetectable
and potentially catastrophic fractures can and do occasionally occur in the airframes
of older aircraft. This has raised the concern of both airline passenger
groups and associations representing airline flight crews. Now, the United States Air Transport Federation (USATF),
an airline trade
association, has taken the lead in working out a deal among these
concerned parties
The USATF announced today that over the past six years it has been working closely with the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) to develop an algorithm that takes into account each airplane's
flying history to predict the risk of it developing a
catastrophic failure. As that risk increases toward an unacceptable
level, an "expiration date" is determined for that particular
aircraft.
Sources inside the USATF have told Travel Fox that beginning next year, all commercial airplanes
carrying more than 15 passengers and flying into or out of an airport
within the United States must post an expiration date on the fuselage
and displayed prominently so that it is clearly visible
to boarding passengers.
In explaining the
methodology behind determining expiration dates, Dorothy Beckwerth,
spokesperson for the USATF said, "An expiration date is based on over
800 factors of aircraft operation. Some of those factors are obvious:
the date that the aircraft was placed in service, the number of hours of
operation, the number of takeoffs and landings. "Others factors," said
Beckwerth, "are less obvious. For example, the amount of fluid pumped
from the lavatories, the number of times the aircraft has been painted,
the directions in which the aircraft has flown, the brands of beer
served passengers and crew and the number of in-flight movies in which
Owen Wilson has appeared are also taken into account when determining an
expiration date."
When asked what will happen once an aircraft reaches its expiration
date, Beckwerth said, "We expect that passengers will choose to fly or
not based on their level of risk tolerance, just as they would choose to
drink from a carton of milk or eat from a can of peas that have passed
their expiration dates. If you are asking if we will be taking out of
service those aircraft that have reached their expiration dates, the
answer is no."
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