Originally Posted by par
That doesn't make sense, if this would be true how come they are still using metal forks?
The incremental costs of adding the knife to be washed with the fork and spoon is relatively minor vs. scrapping using metal utensils at all. While i haven't run the numbers, i find it hard to believe that there is economic value in substituting the knife only and not all the utensils.
Also, it doesn't explain why the european airlines (Scandinavian, Air France etc) all use all-metal utensils on all flights except the US bound flights where they use plastic knifes but metal forks and spoons.
This doesn't add up.
I have no idea what cutlery is used by various European airlines on their flights, but none of that changes the fact that metal forks, spoons and knives have been allowed on flights to/from (and within) the USA for over two years. Perhaps those airlines use metal knives that are sharper or pointier than the typical blunt and dull domestic USA airline knives. Some USA-airlines have been using their metal knives for quite some time (NW and CO? are two that come to mind).
At the time the TSA relaxed the knife restriction to allow blunt, dull airline knives, we discussed the change here on Flyertalk. I'm too lazy to do a search, but it pre-dated the existence of this particular forum. Newstand is probably where the threads are located.