On a recent East Coast U.S Air flight I came across this advertisement for Verizon on my tray table. This addition to the U.S Airways fleet, which began several months ago, is expected to provide additional revenue to the airline and help curb the high cost of fuel. The idea and location of the ads, which at first glance seem a bit comical when lowering the tray table, are anything but funny for a suffering airline industry desperately to again fly high.
With the recent drop in fuel prices, can we still expect advertisement-covered tray tables to encroach on your airline of choice?
Possibly so.
Although the worst seems to be over for airlines' record high fuel costs, it has prompted an industry-wide reaction on methods to increase revenue, without necessarily raises the base cost of airline tickets. If passengers find the advertising on U.S Airways flights is not overly intrusive, it may go over well, and thus adopted by other airlines.
Although advertising revenue from tray tables will not alleviate all the financial pains of the airlines, it is one of many steps the airlines can take to move in the direction of profitability.