Airlines once again serving peanuts as snacks

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/02/16/airline.peanuts/index.html

Northwest Airlines is once again giving passengers peanuts as snack on their flights. A lot of people are very upset about this because of their allergy problems with peanuts. The change in policy came four months after Northwest’s merge with Delta Air Lines and during the national salmonella outbreak involving Peanut Corporation of America. Northwest is based out of Minneapolis, and many citizens wrote in to the local newspaper’s website stating their issues with the company’s policy of serving peanuts on flights. One man wrote in saying "My wife's allergy is so severe that if someone is sitting next to her and eating peanuts, the odor is enough to trigger an allergic reaction." Delta says "We'll create a buffer zone of three rows in front of and three rows behind your seat," the airline's Web site says. "We'll also advise cabin service to board additional non-peanut snacks, which will allow our flight attendants to serve these snack items to everyone within this area." I personally don’t have any allergies but some of my friends do so I can definitely see the issue with this. I guess I just don’t understand why the airlines can’t serve something that isn’t allergenic to as many people. It seems like they would want to make their customers as happy and safe as they can so they get more business.

I think that the complaints of people that are allergic to peanuts is a very invalid and unwarranted complaint. People that have these allergies have to deal with this problem at every restaurant or area that serves snacks. If you were allergic to peanuts as the mans wife was (even just the smell), and were at Delta and another student in one of your classes opened a bag of peanuts and began to eat them, what could you do? Would you write a letter to Delta’s administration or the vendor that sells Delta the peanuts? I really don’t think so. This is the same situation. If they are so concerned about their allergies then they shouldn’t use public transportation that serves peanuts. When you’re the one with the problem then maybe you should remove yourself from the situation rather than expect the situation to change. The airlines also offer other snacks for the passengers that are allergic, so that they can have a snack if they choose to. It is not like they are discriminating against people with allergies. Airlines have been serving this snack for many years for its passengers. If this snack were that big of a problem for the customers of the airline service, then I am sure that they would have absolved it a long time ago. I guess with the large number of people that have peanut allergies then maybe it would be good for the airlines to choose not to serve these snacks, but again I don’t think that the people with peanut allergies should post comments of outrage with the airlines that are once again serving these snacks.

So many people have allergies to so many thing that it would be next to impossible to ban everything that people might be allergic to. Would you tell someone walking their dog to not walk their dog so close to you if you were allergic to dogs? I can understand the problem people who are severly allergic to peanuts may have with peanuts being around them in such close quarters as an airplane, but that shouldn't be the airline's problem. If they want to serve peanuts they should serve peanuts. The only real way I think they could avoid people being upset is to set up "peanut free" areas where people could sit and not be anywhere near people who are eating peanuts.