Russian Airline Bans Chewing Gum

Russian Airline Bans Chewing Gum

If you like chewing gum while flying, the Russian budget airline Pobeda has a new ban that will prevent passengers from chewing it while on their aircraft.  The rule is being enforced due to the cost associated to scraping off gum from the aircraft.

The rule took effect in June, and it comes as the airline claims that the cost of removing gum from seats on the aircraft comes at a cost of 100,000 rubles (about $1,749) per piece that the airline has to remove.

According to the airline’s press secretary, Yelena Selivanova, “”The ban on chewing gum use has been in place since the middle of June and is connected to losses sustained by the airline.”

According to Fox News:

The carrier, which was launched last year, is the country’s first budget airline. It faced difficulties during its initial launch when E.U. firms from which the country had leased airplanes, pulled contracts over the airline’s service to Crimea. Now the carrier no longer flies to annexed region.

Pobeda, which means “victory” in Russian, now operates flights from Moscow to 17 cities across the country.

The airline is the first to ban gum, and there is no word how the airline will enforce the rule.  We’ll see if flight attendants will treat gum the same way they do passengers who keep their cell phones on, but regardless, it may be a hard policy to enforce.

The greater question is: why are some people so disgusting that they take the gum out of their mouth and place it on to the seats of the aircraft?  The simple solution, although not always possible, is for people to be mindful of their fellow passengers and NOT place gum on a seat/tray table that the next passenger will come in contact with.  Until then, I guess passengers flying aboard Pobeda will have to put up with the new rule.