Airlines are always laser-focused on two things:
- how to make more money, and
- how to save more money
Ideally, at the same time, because capitalism never sleeps, and neither does Delta’s accounting department.
For years, carriers have gone absolutely feral trying to shave ounces off everything that flies. They’ve lightened seats, shrunk magazines (before they got rid of them altogether), swapped metal utensils for plastic, and even stopped stocking enough bottled water to hydrate a hamster. All in the name of cutting fuel burn.
But apparently airlines may now have a surprising new best friend in their quest to keep fuel spending down — and nope, it’s not a new jet engine, a magic fuel blend, or an overly ambitious aeronautical engineer with a dream and a whiteboard.
It’s weight-loss drugs
Yep. According to equity researchers at Jefferies, the new class of GLP-1 weight-loss medications could actually help airlines’ bottom lines.
Novo Nordisk recently launched the first oral GLP-1 weight-loss prescription. And Eli Lilly expects its own oral weight-loss pill to be up for FDA approval as early as the second quarter. In other words, the “magic shot” era may soon become the “magic pill” era.
Not financial advice, but if I were a Wall Street type, I’d be staring pretty hard at Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly right now. Because people are taking these meds. A lot of people. Jefferies says injectable GLP-1s have already reduced the number of obese U.S. adults by 7.6 million since 2022, with 12.4% of adults reporting current use. And if pills start replacing needles, that number is only going to grow—because let’s be real, far more people are going to be comfortable swallowing a pill than giving themselves a weekly shot.
So yeah, the pill era is expected to crank the numbers up even more.
So what does any of that have to do with planes?
Simple aviation math: lighter passengers = lighter planes = less fuel burn = more money staying in airline pockets.
And we’ve already told you how airlines obsess over shaving ounces. Look at all the crazy ways they’ve made their planes, and everything in them, lighter.
If the average passenger on a Boeing 737 MAX 8 weighed 10% less (dropping from ~180 lbs to ~162 lbs), a typical dual-class flight would shed about 3,200 lbs — roughly 2% of the aircraft’s max takeoff weight.
Fuel is expected to cost Delta, American, United, and Southwest roughly $38.6 billion this year, about 19% of total expenses. A 2% reduction in aircraft weight could translate into a 1.5% boost in fuel efficiency — equal to roughly $579 million in savings.
Or as Jefferies joked: “Please note savings are before any lost snack sales.”
It’s not a new idea
By the way, the concept of enough PAX losing enough weight to truly affect airlines’ bottom line has been murmured for years. If 12.4% of adults report taking the injectable version of a GLP-1, and then pills take off, just think how much airlines will save because of it.
While our prices continue to increase.
H/T: CNBC
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1 comment
An additional benefit is that if the passengers are smaller, the airline can cram more of them on the plane.
If people complain about not being able to fit in smaller seats, the airlines will just say “Up your dose.”