Airline In-Flight Magazines Are Latest To Go

Airlines have trimmed as many expenses as they can after being decimated by the global coronavirus pandemic, including big-ticket items like parking planes and cutting capacity to, seemingly, low-priority expenses like food and beverage.

Now comes the latest cutback.

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According to the aviation blog The Points Guy, four of the top five U.S. airlines have removed their inflight magazines from seatback pockets.

And it might not have been solely the choice of the airlines.

Delta, for instance, removed its Sky magazine and said the decision was based on a new aircraft cleaning process. Like many airlines, Delta has gone with a fogging disinfectant in the plane.

But Sky magazine is published privately by MSP Communications, and several staff writers say they’ve been laid off in the wake of Delta’s decision.

Southwest Airlines has also put Southwest: The Magazine on hold, after publication of the March 2020 issue. At its peak, the magazine had 5.5 million readers and Southwest is “working around the clock and will follow up with next steps regarding the Southwest: The Magazine soon,” a company spokesperson told The Points Guy.

Alaska Airlines is not publishing an April or May issue of its Alaska Beyond magazine.

As for American Airlines, its American Way magazine was placed in seatbacks for April. Michael Keating, CEO of Ink Global, which publishes American Airlines’ American Way magazine and United’s Hemisphere magazine.

“The April edition of American Way was boarded as usual and American is 100% committed to all the titles that we produce (American Way, Nexos and Celebrated Living),” he said. “Whilst of course pagination and print runs will vary, we are planning future issues as normal. The same goes for Hemispheres, though we will be skipping the May issue as United passenger numbers will be down. We are currently working on the June issue of Hemispheres and beyond.”