Court orders Air Canada nut-free zone

[Owen H]

The problem with peanut allergies is that they are often very severe, and airborne peanut dust is sometimes enough to trigger these people into severe reactions.

The problem is... how do you practically manage that as an airline?

Most airlines no longer serve peanuts anyway. They serve cashews or almonds usually. That said... how do you prevent a passenger from bringing their own on board?

I remember coming across one passenger who got on board and quite forcefully told the cabin manager that she had a nut allergy, severe enough that airborne dust could set her off into a severe reaction, and as such we were not allowed to serve any nuts on board the aircraft. The only food loaded for the flight was bags of nuts and a nut slice for afternoon tea. As a crew, what do you do? You've got 240 passengers who've paid to fly on your airline and get afternoon tea, and one passenger demanding that it cannot be served... and we still can't guarantee a nut-free environment in the cabin even if it is not.

I'm not sure how you ever guarantee that nut-free environment, even with a nut free zone allocated. Airlines have already removed the peanuts from the aircraft.

Personally, I'm all for trying to make things as good as possible for people with disabilities or allergies. However, there has to be limits of reasonableness. It is simply not possible to guarantee an allergen free air environment on an aircraft, and to expect the airlines to provide that is rediculous. Unfortunately, its a limitation on the method of travel, and perhaps it should remain that way.

[AdamB]

I can accept that some people have allergies, but boarding the aircraft & demanding no nuts are served is rediculous. Although I don't believe they should be forced to as in the Air Canada case , surely the airlines could set up an allergy disclosure when the flight is booked so they have an adequate period of time to cater for that persons needs without making every other paying customer suffer.

[chrisb]

Originally Posted by Owen H

how do you prevent a passenger from bringing their own on board?

From what I've seen in the media, certain nuts can definitely be seen on the full body scanners they want to introduce

[Robert S]

Originally Posted by Owen H

You've got 240 passengers who've paid to fly on your airline and get afternoon tea, and one passenger demanding that it cannot be served... and we still can't guarantee a nut-free environment in the cabin even if it is not.

I would have thought that if she had not previously come to an agreement about it with reservations, she would be offered the choice of accepting the service would continue as normal (without being offered to her of course) or being offloaded.

[Rhys Xanthis]

Originally Posted by Grant Smith

Rhys,

Not too sure if you're joking (due to the use of '!!' in your post) but I digress, as far as I'm still aware Lobster is still available in F/J on SQ among others..

Yeah it was a humourous/sarcastic remark

I always forget sarcasm does not usually translate well on the net.

[Andrew M]

Originally Posted by Raymond Rowe

Maybe they need to see the nutty professor to get over the allergies.This world is getting madder all the time.As robert said thirty years ago it was no such thing what has bought this on all of a sudden.