Al-Masry al-Youm, Egypt, Originally posted in Arabic on February 20
This past January, Malaysian Airlines took an unprecedented measure, never before taken by a major airline, and prohibited passengers from checking in luggage on their flights. Carry-on luggage was also strictly limited to one piece per passenger.
At first, the airline explained that this was due to strong headwinds, which forced the ground staff to reduce the aircraft’s weight due to safety concerns. However, the real reason soon became apparent: gas prices.
It turns out that suitcases, and not passengers, constitute the vast majority of weight on an airplane, leading to more gas consumption. By sending luggage to its destination on a separate cargo plane, flying in parallel to the passenger plane, Malaysian Airlines was able to increase the number of seats filled on each flight, and cut down its costs.
To many people this seemed absurd. But mathematical calculations proved that the decision could save the airline thousands of dollars per flight. Simply put, the airline decided to rationalize its spending – a process which has lost almost all meaning in our day and age.
Look around us. Take our government as an example. Everywhere we look, unnecessary spending takes place. “Efficiency” has become a swearword. Did you know, for example, that Egypt has more embassies around the world than the United States of America? Why?
Each one of these embassies requires taxpayers’ money to operate. It consists not only of an ambassador, but also of staff, security guards, drivers, and diplomatic personnel. In many of the countries where we have embassies there are barely any Egyptians, let alone commercial interests to our nation. Why not consolidate? Why not, like Malaysian Airlines, make our spending more efficient?
Cutting down unnecessary spending should not be the exception, but rather the norm. We can criticize companies like Malaysian Airlines all we want, but the fact remains that they are at the forefront of reducing national spending. Such measures are necessary, even when they are unpopular. –Sliman Jawda