Emirates chucks magazines…to save fuel

Interesting idea, but it honestly doesn’t make much sense to me.

Emirates has made a decision to get rid of all paper from the seat pockets on its new Airbus A380. Why? The Economist reports that they’re trying to save weight and, hence, fuel.

Don’t get me wrong. I think throwing out those silly in-flight magazines is a grand idea. However, can you seriously save significant weight by removing, say, 1000 magazines? Let’s say it’s the same weight as one passenger (after dinner.)

Does that really make a big difference?

The Economist writes that removing 2kg of paper from each of the 500 seats shaves a tonne off the plane’s flying weight. What do they mean by “2 kilos” of magazines, exactly? That’s 4 pounds. Maybe I’m missing something here, but I have never been on a flight where you find 4 lbs of reading material in the seat pocket in front of you.

What does Emirates provide for the reading pleasure of their customers? Bridal magazines?