Posted By William
With reference to the new BA baggage charges which came into force today ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6355999.stm ), am i the only one who see this as being a bit silly and encouraging people to over pack bags which could lead to more manual handling injuries from both passengers and baggage handlers?

The main issue is that you can have one bag up to the weight of 23kgs, but not to 2 bags equaling 23kgs? A QUOTE FROM THE BBC WEBSITE SAID "A spokeswoman said the policy was being introduced to comply with new health and safety regulations designed to protect baggage handlers", but i have always believed that the maximum to be lifted should be 25kgs for a man and 16kg for a woman (from a chart in my copy of a well known book), and 23kgs is still a fair weight to lift repetitively over a working day anyhow.

I notice that they have tried to use health and safety to justify what they are doing, but i think i have just pointed out that this is does not seem be the truth, no doubt they would have tried to use environmental matters to justify this before it occurred to them that there would be no environmental benefit whether it was one or two bags as the luggage would still weigh the same.

I think that health and safety is being used here to make more money for BA, they will be attempting to capitalise on the strong pound and shoppers going to New York and other destinations and taking home shopping.

Posted By William
DOH!, just checked and i now see a thread has already been removed on this subject due to potential libel, but if the thread is removed how are you expected to know? The point about the weight is valid though.

Posted By IOSH Moderator
For your information:

As a rule, if you can keep the discussion to abstract concepts, (e.g. 2x 12.5 kg bags versus 1x 25 kg bag), then the thread can remain.

If however, allegations are made against any organisation or campaigning against any organisation occurs, then the thread will disappear pretty promptly as it breaches the site AUG's!

Feel free to continue.

Regards

Jonathan Breeze

Posted By Paul Oliver
Surely if you increase the number of handling operations eg 2 x 12.5 kg bags instead of 1 x 25kg bags, then you will be contributing to the occurrence of possible repetitive injuries.

Posted By Dave Wilson
The majority of bags are not 'manually handled' as the system is practically fully automated.

less bags, more efficient, safer, not so many lost, less to Xray and check, decrease in time loading & unloading, there fore quicker turn rounds.

Posted By William
Did anyone see the BBC report last night, when the reporter was speaking to a woman on her way to South Africa who had considerably more than the 23kgs in one bag? Is this not the danger though of the one bag policy as people will try and pack more and more into 1 bag, which check in staff will sometimes let through just to avoid the abuse from a customer if they do not.

I do wonder what may come next, as in the offshore industry we were being weighed at our check in last summer before going offshore and coming back onshore to keep the flight payloads down to a certain level for the safety of helicopter flights. I suppose from a health point of view this was not such a bad idea as it spurred me on to lose the weight i gained after stopping smoking, but when you think things over will people who are seriously obese ( i was not, just put on a few kgs) be denied air travel at some time in the future on the grounds of safety? To what extent could a company use health and safety laws without breaching the DDA?

Posted By Dave Wilson
Before flying weights and balances are carefully measured so that the weights put on an aircraft are distributed evenly and in the places it should be so it can take of and land safely. People, bags, cargo, food, fuel etc are all carefully calculated.

To such an extent on smaller aircraft the people are weighed so that they can distribute the weight around the aircraft, basically so that its not nose heavy or tail heavy or too heavy on one side etc. The weight will affect the fuel load and eventually the fuel burn

As far as people overloading bags this is not a new phenomenon as pax have and will continue to do this. on larger aircraft the pax are given a nominal weight as some will be heavier and some will be lighter so it evens out, so its the total number of pax.

Most of the larger airlines did not mind if you were a few kilos over as some would be under and this can be taken up by those pax not using their allowance.

There is only so much weight you can put on an aircraft so its not really the airlines being stingy, for instance 400 seats with full baggage allowance is what is generally worked with for the safety of that particular aircraft, if you take out more seats so that people can have more baggage weight the cost goes up. but if the aircraft was full, what is the weight which each pax can carry without overlaoding = £23kg.

Also airfreight is put on as well so if everyone turns up with all their allowance and more, then the cargo which goes on may have to be offloaded or you pay the difference of your allowance.