Northwest Cuts Mags & Pretzels

Northwest Airline's decision to eliminate free magazines (except its own) as well as free pretzels is a sure sign of how close to the bone money-losing US airlines are trying to cut.  The magazine decision, according to the airline, will save Northwest $565,000 in the coming year.  Reminds me of the time former American Airlines president Robert Crandall eliminated the olive on top of first class salads to save money.

Having said that, I am sympathetic to the plight of Northwest, whose labor costs are higher than the competition and who can't seem to raise fares high enough to turn a profit.  Now, I bring my own reading material aloft, and I don't like pretzels.  But if you're only going to have one magazine aboard your planes, make it a good one. 

Northwest until recently had the worst magazine of any major airline; its decision to ask the city magazine in its corporate hometown, Minneapolis-St. Paul, to overhaul the magazine was a good one.  But the airline's management has to let the editors do their work.  Insistence on formulaic cover stories about people or places only related to Northwest destinations is a dumb idea.  Let the airline be the airline and let a magazine be a magazine. The layout is better, the writing is better.  But the subject matter could certainly be more interesting.