How airlines cut costs
In the 1980s a cabin crew at American Airlines observed that its passengers would happily wolf down in-flight dinner salads but nearly three-fourths would leave the customary olive. Robert Crandall, the company's boss at the time, promptly removed it.
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It turned out that the airline paid its caterers based on the number of ingredients in the salad: 60 cents for four items and 80 cents for five. The olive was the fifth item.
This move saved upwards of $40,000 a year. In 1994 Southwest Airlines followed the suggestion of a flight attendant and removed the company’s logo from trash bags, saving the carrier $300,000 a year.
In an industry that serves fussy customers and operates on thin margins, how do modern airlines cut costs without cutting corners?
They start by mimicking doughnut-dodging supermodels who watch their weight down to the second decimal place.
Airlines bin bulky in-flight magazines, lay thinner carpets and serve food in light cardboard boxes.
Some airlines have jettisoned safety equipment emergency water landings on those aircraft that do not fly above water. Seats have become lighter.
In its Airbus A321, Air Mediterranée, a French carrier, recently replaced 220 economy seats, each weighing 12kg, with skinnier ones made from lighter materials such as titanium that weigh around 4kg. GoAir, an Indian low-cost carrier, hires only female flight attendants because they are on average 10-15 kg lighter than men. Such parsimony pays off.
Fuel bill
Fuel accounts for a third of an airline’s cost and every kilo thus shed reduces $100 from an aircraft’s annual fuel bill.
Small design tweaks on modern aircraft, that are not as thirsty as their previous avatars, also help. Southwest Airlines estimates that it burns “54m less gallons of fuel each year” after it installed winglets or upturned wingtips on its fleet to reduce drag.
EasyJet, a budget carrier, uses ultra-thin paint that eliminates microscopic bumps on the aircraft’s body to help it cut through air more easily and hence, burn less fuel. Internationally, pilots are being persuaded not take off at full throttle and to fly their aircraft at cruising altitude immediately.
Upon landing, on longish runways, pilots let the aircraft slow down on its own instead of pulling the engines into reverse thrust. Some low-cost carriers such as India’s SpiceJet have learned to work their fleet aggressively.
Pilots of its Bombardier Q400 turboprops, that serve smaller tier-2 cities, fly their planes faster to shave a few minutes of flight-time on each leg which lets them squeeze in an additional flight every day.
Innovative ways
The increased fuel-burn on account of the extra nip is more than offset by the revenue it generates. Fewer seats push down operating costs and enable faster turnaround times.
And yet for all the stress that airlines willingly take on, boarding delays cost them up to $1 billion a year in Europe alone. Airbus thinks it has the answer.
Last month it won a patent for designing a portable cabin that copies the seating arrangement of an aircraft. The module, docked at a gate, will carry passengers along with their luggage and be lowered directly into an empty aircraft like a matchbox that neatly slips into its case.
After landing, the detachable cabin will be replaced by a fully-loaded pod that carries a new set of passengers ready for take-off.
The futuristic design may cost a few billion dollars and many years to develop. In the meantime, airlines and aircraft manufacturers will continue to weed out that extra olive.