Infants as pax.
As this is a Safety topic, is it possible for the mods to leave it on this main forum for max exposure, please?
On another occasion, I've had a "debate" with non-flying staff about the designation (or NON designation) of infants as passengers.
In many carriers today, airlines - in their attempt to cut costs - are working on providing the absolute MINIMUM number of Flight Attendants required, this number being determined by the number of passengers carried - 1 F/A per 50 pax.
But to reduce this number even further, infants are NOT included in the passenger count.
Except on ALL company documentation, eg. Weight & Balance (as given to the cockpit crew), pax inventory..PPI. PSL, PIL...whatever name you want to call it....given to the Purser, or Chief, and the number of infants is included with the total pax count as advised to the cockpit crew by the C/A's.
IMO, the life of an infant is NO different to anyone else - but I guess to an airline they are not occupying (nor purchasing) a seat - although in most cases the parents will still have to pay to have them carried.
So WHY is the total number of F/A's - responsible for the Safety of ALL passengers in the aircraft - not determined by the TOTAL number of lives on board at the time.
It's rubbish, imo, to say that the person who carried them onboard will carry them off in an emergency. for many and vaired reasons.
Can ANYONE please provide me with a plausable reason as to WHY infants are excluded from the total pax count determining the legal number of F/A's required?