We could have named this post, 15 useless facts about air travel but you may just be surprised by some of these facts about air travel. So next time you fly, impress your fellow passengers with these (often bizarre) facts about air travel, airlines and the people who fly your planes.
1. British Airways passengers eat 6 tons of caviar every year.
2. Many airlines insist the pilot and co-pilot never eat the same meal in case of food poisoning
3. Alaska Airlines introduced online check-ins way back in 1999
4. Qantas claim to have invented Business Class in 1979
5. The busiest airport by number of passengers in the world is Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport which saw over 100million passenger’s in 2016. Beijing and Dubai are 2nd and 3rd with Heathrow in 7th place with over 75million passengers.
6. It is estimated that there may be as many as 750,000 people are in the air at any given time
7. The World’s oldest airline is KLM which was founded in 1919.
8. Their first commercial flight was between Amsterdam and London on the 17th May 1920
9. Airplanes are lightning proof – despite being hit numerous times by lightning strikes, no plane has crashed because of lightning in well over 50 years.
10. Airline food isn’t as bad as you think! As the plane gains altitude the change in pressure numbs around 30% of your taste buds resulting in a feeling that the food is a bit bland.
11. Almost 100 planes per hour take off and land at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport
12. Around 30% of the world’s airports are in the United States
13. The very first airline attendants had to be unmarried and trained nurses
14. In the early days of flying before pressurised cabins the passengers sometimes had to wear oxygen masks.
15. American Airlines switching their pilots’ manuals from paper based to IPad based will save them $1.2 million in fuel