INFLIGHT MAGAZINES: A SIGN OF THE TIMES
Northwest Airlines and Japan Airlines both revealed plans last month to reduce weight on board their flights by reducing the number of pages in their inflight magazines. By doing this, and reducing weight in other areas they claim to be able to increase fuel efficiency which, in turn, will save money.
You might think it would be better to just get rid of inflight magazines completely, however airlines gain substantial revenue from them. Canadian low cost carrier WestJet earned US$3 million from its Up! inflight magazine last year, and Thai Airways is selling full pages in its Sawasdee offering for upwards of US$ 12,500 per page.
In this case weight is the reason but obviously cutting pages also reduces the print and production costs too. However, almost all inflight magazines are contract published titles so the airline isn't the one that makes savings in that area.
3 comments:
Why not just reduce the size or amount of passengers' carry-on luggage? Talk of reducing the page count in in-flight magazines sounds scary, as if flights are in danger of falling out of the air. If the air stewards wore no underwear, or lighter soled shoes, would it make a difference? I hope not.
Why don't airlines just charge what it costs them to fly a person from point A to point B? All this surcharge garbage, cutting this and shaving that, is less than encouraging, and merely adds to the negative view people have of the airline industry.
I think that inflight magazines actually contribute in some small way to reducing the cost of air travel. If airlines didn't have this source of revenue I'm sure they'd charge more for their services.
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