The extraordinary lengths Qantas and Virgin Australia are going to cut down on weight

The extraordinary lengths Qantas and Virgin Australia are going to cut down on weight as the cost of jet fuel soars are revealed

  • ‘Heavy’ paper documentation such as flight manuals recently replaced by iPads
  • Virgin now handing out lightweight crockery and ‘lighter’ business class pyjamas
  • Replaced steel brakes on their fleets of workhorse 737s – saving roughly 300kg
  • Qantas expects to spend $4 billion on fuel in 2018, Virgin’s bill to rise $88 million

As the cost of fuel continues to soar, two leading Australian airlines are taking extreme measures to reduce weight on board their jets.

Nothing is off limits, with Qantas and Virgin Australia committed to saving every dollar possible.

Both airlines recently removed ‘heavy’ paper documentation such as flight manuals from their jets.

Leading Australian airline Qantas (pictured) is taking extreme measures to reduce weight on its jets as the cost of fuel continues to soar (stock image)

They were replaced by iPads, which Qantas says shaved 42kg from each of their planes.

Virgin went a step further, offering lightweight crockery and lighter business class pyjamas.

They are also planning to replace metal ice buckets with plastic varieties.

David Summergreene, Qantas’ Boeing 787 first officer, said the addition of Dreamliners to Qantas’ fleet in 2017 gave the airline an opportunity to evaluate how they could further reduce weight.

‘Some of these initiatives have been rolled out across our broader fleet,’ he told the Canberra Times. 

Qantas and Virgin recently replaced the steel brakes on their fleets of workhorse 737s, saving about 300kg.

The cost of fuel has seen Virgin Australia (pictured) take extreme measures to reduce weight on their aircraft

The cost of fuel has seen Virgin Australia (pictured) take extreme measures to reduce weight on their aircraft

Qantas has also removed a further 440kg from each of its planes by replacing traditional cargo hold units with lightweight units made of composite material.

Qantas expect to spend about $800million more on fuel this year compared with last year due to higher oil prices – about $4billion compared with $3.23billion.

Virgin Australia are anticipating their fuel bill will increase by about $88million.

Qantas (pictured) will fork out $4billion in fuel due to higher oil prices in 2018 (stock image)

Qantas (pictured) will fork out $4billion in fuel due to higher oil prices in 2018 (stock image)

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