• FelixCress@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Someone clearly doesn’t understand how much it used to cost to travel by plane 50 years ago.

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Also this image is bullshit

      Tray tables are about half that size now.

      • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        Not on longer flights. It doesn’t benefit airlines much to make smaller tray tables

        • deranger@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          Save on weight means save on gas. Multiply that by thousands of flights and it adds up. United printed their in flight magazines on lighter paper and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars, just by using thinner paper.

          They only eliminated 5kg per 737, but that added up to $290k savings.

          If anything I think it’d be even more effective on longer flights as those jets spend more time in cruise vs short haul airliners.

          By using lighter paper to print their in-flight magazine, Hemisphere, United Airlines saves up to 170,000 gallons of fuel, which cuts about $290,000 in annual fuel costs.

          One magazine is now one 29 g lighter and weights 195 g which will make a usual 737 plane that carries 179 passengers 5 kg lighter on average.

          https://www.kiwi.com/stories/united-prints-lighter-magazine-saves-170000-gallons-fuel/

          • slaacaa@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Good example, aviation is probably the most penny-fucking business in the planet, it’s a life and death fight between the companies, trying to keep costs low.

          • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            United makes 50B in revenue a year. I’m guessing that stunt gave them more value in marketing than actual savings.

          • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            It’s a good pr thing, but they probably saved more money by using lower quality paper than the saved fuel.

        • Wogi@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          I suppose I don’t take many long flights and I don’t recall how much space I had on the last long flight I had.

          Typically on my domestic flights I have a tray table that won’t fit my switch if I want to stand it up.

      • EleventhHour@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Ehh…

        The bottom line

        Proportionally (inflation considered), flights are much cheaper now than they were 50 years ago. Consequently, flying is a more accessible mode of transport for many and has resulted in the soaring popularity of air travel, which began after deregulation. However, despite the cost drop, the base cost of flying has increased as airlines operate small profit margins and seek to remain competitive.

        • Rinox@feddit.it
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          4 months ago

          If you want you can go first class you know. It’s more or less as much as it was in the 50s and you get possibly even more luxury. Just be ready to pay 5k instead of a hundred bucks

    • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      It was like 135 bucks for the cheapest unrestricted ticket in the usa in 1975, which comes out to around 814 bucks today. Where as I can buy a round-trip ticket right now for 220, which is the equivalent of 38 bucks in 1975.

      And to really put that into perspective, an average house in 1975 cost 39k, and if you take out a 20-year lone with 9% interest, you are looking at 193 bucks per month for your rent. So a single plane ticket in 1975 was 69% of the average monthly rent for a house.

      Idk why I did all this, but my adhd told me I had to.

      • aidan@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Not everyone’s situtation is yours. There are millions of people living continents away from their family to earn money to support them.

    • jaybone@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      But back then the price was regulated so they had to compete on service.

      That might have been more that 50 years now.