Could weight-loss pills transform air travel economics? A Wall Street firm thinks so.
According to a study published last week by the financial services firm Jefferies, the four largest U.S. carriers—American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines—could together save as much as $580 million per year on fuel thanks to the weight-loss drugs known as GLP-1s.
One in eight U.S. adults said they were taking a GLP-1 in a November survey published by KFF, a nonprofit health research group.
Patients are already getting their hands on the first GLP-1 pill for obesity from Novo Nordisk, and a similar product from Eli Lilly isn’t far behind, with U.S. approval expected within months, according to CNBC. By eliminating the need for self-injection, pills are widely expected to attract first-time patients to obesity treatments.
Fuel is among airlines’ largest expenses. The Jefferies study estimates that the four airlines will together consume 16 billion gallons of fuel in 2026 at a total cost of $38.6 billion, nearly 20 percent of their total expenses.
Fuel efficiency’s relation to weight has long been a point aircraft manufacturers including Boeing routinely emphasize. When Boeing delivers an aircraft, there is a fixed “operating empty weight,” with the remaining allowance up to the maximum takeoff weight split among fuel, passengers, baggage and cargo, Jefferies noted.
Although the benefits of slimmer passengers have yet to move the fuel needle substantially, consider the following equation posed by Jefferies—if average passenger weight declined by 10 percent, total passenger weight would fall by about 3,200 pounds or roughly 2 percent of maximum takeoff weight, delivering meaningful fuel savings over thousands of flights per year.
The industry’s fixation on weight is well documented. In 2018, United Airlines switched its Hemisphere magazine to lighter paper, trimming about an ounce per copy, a move expected to save 170,000 gallons of fuel annually, worth roughly $290,000 at the time.
In a more extreme example, American once removed a single olive from each passenger’s salad, saving $40,000 a year in food and fuel costs. Hey, every ounce adds up.
