US Airways cuts in-flight movies

Penny-pinching airline US Airways has found a new way to cut costs: No more in-flight movies on domestic, Mexico, or Caribbean flights. Bloomberg News reports that trimming back on the celluloid will save US Airways about $10 million per year. Apparently the airline’s beastly video systems weighs about 500 pounds each and losing that weight will help its aircraft gain better fuel efficiency. The entertainment systems will be shut down on most North America flights on November 1. Hawaii and transatlantic flights will still have in-flight movies.

Some may be sad to lose their onboard tube-time, but I’m not. Who wants to pay a headphone fee (US Airways charges $5) to watch the airlines’ usual dim-witted movie picks? Even if you did bring your own headphones, wouldn’t a nap serve you better than watching films like Wild Hogs or Norbit? (I’ve slept through both.)

And losing movies is certainly better than US Airways adding another fee. Don’t forget, it was only a few weeks ago US Airways added a flurry of new fees, including a $15 first-checked-bag fee, $2 for water and soda, and $25 to $50 to “process” award tickets. Come to think of it, US Airways is probably running out of things to charge for. I wonder what they’ll do next. With no snacks or headphones to hand out and a fee for any beverages, maybe they’ll replace the flight attendants with a single “flight warden.”