The US government via its transport department has looked at a bill to ban peanuts on aircraft in the USA. A nod to the many allergies that threaten people’s health and cause consternation among their fellow fliers. Where will it stop?
Travel writer Christopher Elliott pointed out some of the issues facing the bill, which included –
1) Banning the serving of peanuts and all peanut products by both U.S. and foreign carriers on flights covered by DOT’s disability rule.
2) Banning the serving of peanuts and all peanut products on all such flights where a passenger with a peanut allergy is on board and has requested a peanut-free flight in advance.
3) Requiring a peanut-free buffer zone in the immediate area of a passenger with a medically-documented severe allergy to peanuts if passenger has requested a peanut-free flight in advance.
Not to make fun of people’s allergies, after all I have a serious allergy that is work related and flares up every Monday morning, but shouldn’t some airline be thinking about marketing allergy free flights? What would that aircraft look like? Clean, devoid of food that could cause reactions and amenities only available to passengers willing to part with excessive amounts of money. In fact it would be easy to strip away any and all inclusions that could cause irritations, headaches, nausea, reactions and anxiety without trouble.
Why not have an airline that includes nothing but a seat and everything else comes as an extra payment and so reducing the chance of an allergy attack caused by giving away free airline food or amenities. Hang on, aren’t there a lot of those airlines already flying around? Ryan Air comes to mind along with a host of low cost carriers.
I can see Michael O’Leary now, advertising his airline to the world’s allergy sufferers as the balm to their flying anxieties. No peanuts on his flights unless you are prepared to part with a lot of money and what self respecting allergy sufferer would do that?
The problem is solved; fly low cost, which may not be the most comfortable, nor the best service but allergy free.