• morrowind@lemmy.ml
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        5 months ago

        Not on longer flights. It doesn’t benefit airlines much to make smaller tray tables

        • deranger@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          Save on weight means save on gas. Multiply that by thousands of flights and it adds up. United printed their in flight magazines on lighter paper and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars, just by using thinner paper.

          They only eliminated 5kg per 737, but that added up to $290k savings.

          If anything I think it’d be even more effective on longer flights as those jets spend more time in cruise vs short haul airliners.

          By using lighter paper to print their in-flight magazine, Hemisphere, United Airlines saves up to 170,000 gallons of fuel, which cuts about $290,000 in annual fuel costs.

          One magazine is now one 29 g lighter and weights 195 g which will make a usual 737 plane that carries 179 passengers 5 kg lighter on average.

          https://www.kiwi.com/stories/united-prints-lighter-magazine-saves-170000-gallons-fuel/

          • slaacaa@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Good example, aviation is probably the most penny-fucking business in the planet, it’s a life and death fight between the companies, trying to keep costs low.

          • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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            5 months ago

            United makes 50B in revenue a year. I’m guessing that stunt gave them more value in marketing than actual savings.

            • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              You clearly do not understand basic math nor how rampant greed in capitalism works. Sad.

              If it saves them money, they WILL do it. (or even appears to save money)

              Or do you think Scrooge types aren’t literally known for penny-pinching when they’re already rich and wouldn’t even notice the pennies going missing?

          • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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            5 months ago

            It’s a good pr thing, but they probably saved more money by using lower quality paper than the saved fuel.

        • Wogi@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I suppose I don’t take many long flights and I don’t recall how much space I had on the last long flight I had.

          Typically on my domestic flights I have a tray table that won’t fit my switch if I want to stand it up.

    • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      It was like 135 bucks for the cheapest unrestricted ticket in the usa in 1975, which comes out to around 814 bucks today. Where as I can buy a round-trip ticket right now for 220, which is the equivalent of 38 bucks in 1975.

      And to really put that into perspective, an average house in 1975 cost 39k, and if you take out a 20-year lone with 9% interest, you are looking at 193 bucks per month for your rent. So a single plane ticket in 1975 was 69% of the average monthly rent for a house.

      Idk why I did all this, but my adhd told me I had to.

    • jaybone@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      But back then the price was regulated so they had to compete on service.

      That might have been more that 50 years now.

      • aidan@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Not everyone’s situtation is yours. There are millions of people living continents away from their family to earn money to support them.