United Airlines has gotten quite innovative in its quest to save money and save the world—or, if you look at it another way, they’re really pinching pennies.
Among the latest cost-savers, United is now printing its inflight magazine Hemisphere on lighter paper, saving about an ounce in weight, 170,000 gallons in fuel and $290,000 a year. It also reduced the weight of its seatback service guide.
Think how much they could save by skipping the magazine altogether! Since the magazine now weighs just under 7 oz., that would save over a million gallons and $2 million. That, by the way, is what the airline saved last year by dropping its online duty-free sales, which weren’t selling well, but added the weight of all the bottles, boxes and whatever to the weight and cost of flight.
