Comparison of airline passenger oxygen systems

The principal sources of oxygen for inflight passenger use, scheduled and unscheduled, are examined. Present practices of assessment of the passenger's "fitness to fly" are described. Three partner airlines, British Airways, U.S. Air, and Qantas, catering for more than 8000 oxygen requests annually, are compared. Analysis of customer use suggests that medical oxygen requests are frequently not clinically justified. The growth in demand, for both scheduled and unscheduled use of an expensive resource, supports the need for a "recommended best practice" among carriers. Passengers with respiratory disorders who will most benefit from inflight oxygen are vulnerable either to hypoxia or asthma.