High fuel prices slowing down your flight

The airline industry is taking a page out of the playbook used during the gas crisis of the '70s: Putting on the brakes. In order to save fuel (and money), at least one airline is simply slowing down its planes.

Brussels Airlines in Belgium is the first to publicly announce such a move, dropping average flight speed by 10km per hour (6.2 miles per hour), which it says will save it 1 million euros ($1.6 million) on jet fuel every year. The airline says its flights, which mostly consist of short hops across Europe, will be longer by only a minute or two as a result of the change.

Brussels Air is also asking the EU to evaluate its messy air traffic system, which restricts certain countries' airspace to certain airlines or charges extra for flying through them, forcing planes to fly in a meandering pattern along borders as they get from one country to another. It was recently revealed that some planes take much longer routes than necessary in order to avoid hefty charges imposed by some countries for passing through: Even with extra fuel charges, it's just cheaper to go around. But that, of course, burns more gas, wastes time, and creates addtional greenhouse gasses. No good for anyone.

No word on whether any other airlines, overseas or domestically, are planning to announce similar moves (though many could slow their flights and no one would be the wiser), but Brussels Airlines deserves credit for trying to think of unique solutions to the fuel price challenge.

UPDATE: Today (Friday), the AP has a follow-up on U.S. airlines pursuing the same strategy.