– Northwest Airlines is introducing a new fee structure for heavy bags in response to increasing back injuries among its workers. It will charge $50 for a bag weighing 50 to 70 pounds and $100 for a bag weighing 70 to 100 pounds. Northwest doesn’t accept bags that weigh more than 100 pounds. The airline says employee back injuries rose 27 percent in the last year. Other airlines also charge extra for heavy bags.
– The Federal Aviation Administration has unveiled plans to add an onboard system to make commercial airliners’ fuel tanks safer and reduce the chance of explosions such as the one that downed a TWA jet off Long Island, N.Y., in 1996. Inexpensive and lightweight, the onboard “inerting” system pumps nitrogen-enriched air into fuel tanks, reducing the oxygen in fuel vapors and flammability, FAA officials say. No cost estimates were given for the system, which must be flight tested but could be installed on some aircraft in 2004. Boeing Co. has applied for permission to install such a system on its aircraft.
