2007-02-18-AirNewZealand

Even in fully metric countries, being supplied with something that defaults to customary measures leads to random instances of miles in an otherwise fully metric system.

Here's my letter to Air New Zealand encouraging them to provide a consistent interface when it comes to measurement.

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I recently got off a most enjoyable flight from MEL to AKL (NZ124). As usual, the plane was in good condition and the service was all I've come to expect from Air New Zealand.

However, I did find two things a bit odd.

While on decent, the in flight entertainment was showing our flightpath and various information about our flight and destination. One of these was a diagram showing the plane and the distance to the closest major towns. Oddly, the distances were listed in miles (with no indication as to which kind of mile). Given that Australia and New Zealand been metric only countries for over 30 years, this information was kind of useless (and, being the only screen not using metric, is inconsistent).

Also, one of the flight attendants gave the distance to the destination in nautical miles instead of kilometers.

Again, thanks for the wonderful service and I look forward to a consistent metric only information service in the future.

Regards, Paul Armstrong

The reference number for this comment is '070218-000053' should anyone else like to pitch in.

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Dear Paul,

Thank you for your email.

The reason behind putting this information in miles is due to the fact that the aircraft operates Melbourne Auckland and then onto Los Angeles and most people around the world still are in the frame of noting distances in miles and not kilometers, particularly for Americans or Canadians who would have been on board. This is the reason that the flight attendant also gave this information out in miles.

However, the good news is, which I found out from the flight operations people at Auckland airport prior to sending you this reply, is that if you want it changed to read in kilometers then all one needs to do is actually ask the Inflight Service Manager on board to alter the script accordingly to what you want. Of course this may not suit everybody but then not many people would approach this issue to this extent.

Apparently to close on, it has been pointed out to me that there are not that many coutries at all that do not use the metric system of distance or any other mathematical matter. This was relatively new to me, I was unsure of this one way or the other.

I hope this answer is suitable to you wanting to enjoy more Air New Zealand service and please remember to ask the cabin attendants to alter the print on the screen if you wish and see if they will do this for you.

Kind regards,

AIR NEW ZEALAND ONLINE SUPPORT

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Thanks Mike.

As you note, at the end of your reply, very few countries use imperial measures these days (in fact, the USA is the only major country that's not using it by default, they use it for a lot of things but are being stubborn about finishing metrication). Canada is a metric country and Canadians only understand miles if they spend a lot of time traveling to the USA.

Would it be possible to set it the other way (i.e. get rid of the one screen that's using miles and let the small number of people who don't understand metric ask for it to be switched) instead of inconveniencing most of your passengers?

As for the flight attendant giving out distances in miles, they used nautical miles, which are different from statute miles and understandable by an even smaller amount of the population (it's completely limited to sailors and pilots).

Thanks,

Paul