Airlines Losing Weight

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Airlines are implementing extensive weight-saving measures across their operations to achieve millions of dollars in annual cost savings.
  • Even small reductions, like using thinner paper or lighter packaging, significantly impact fuel efficiency and costs due to the cumulative effect across thousands of flights and seats.
  • Strategies include switching to tablets for manuals, using lighter food containers, eliminating glass bottles, removing duty-free sales, and replacing heavy entertainment systems with Wi-Fi based options.
See a mistake? Contact us.

Airlines are losing weight and saving millions as a result, according to Business Traveller magazine. The publication is saying that United Airlines is saving $300,000 a year by using thinner paper for its in-flight magazine while other airlines are using lighter food packaging, trimming seat weight and even ditching paper manuals in favor of tablets to shave ounces from their all-up aircraft weights. “Even an ounce, because if you are multiplying that across the thousands of seats and the thousands of flights we have, that ounce adds up and multiplies very quickly,” Aaron Stash, United’s head of environmental strategy and sustainability, told the publication.

Airlines have eliminated glass bottles in their food service, dropped duty free sales and those Wi-Fi based entertainment systems have cut hundreds of pounds worth of television monitors and servers from the payload. Lighter cargo containers and even switching to lighter food have been implemented.

Sign-up for newsletters & special offers!

Get the latest stories & special offers delivered directly to your inbox

SUBSCRIBE