Packing sardines, but only voluntarily
Friday, July 11th, 2008
The Plain Dealer reports today that airlines are cutting capacity to deal with high fuel prices. While this doesn’t necessarily reflect lower passenger demand, as the newspaper points out, it does indicate something else: increased efficiency. Airlines are going to great lengths to use fuel more sparingly:
The fuel pressure has become so intense that airlines are taking steps that would have seemed absurd a year ago. US Airways said this week that it would no longer show movies so it can get the weight of movie equipment off its planes, saving $10 million a year in fuel costs. US Airways and United repainted their aircraft from dark blues and grays to white, which weighs less.
