In the airline industry every penny counts. The Economist wrote about some of the weirder cost-cutting strategies that companies have employed:

• One Indian carrier only hires female flight attendants because they’re typically up to 15kg lighter than men, and this saves on fuel costs.
• Others are going as far as to strip out expensive safety equipment necessary for water landings. They just make sure the plane never flies over water.
• American Airlines famously found that removing the single olive from in-flight salads saved the company $40,000 a year. It turned out the vendor was paid based on the number of ingredients in the salad.
• Southwest has taken its logo off garbage bags to save $300,000 annually on printing costs.
• Even the carpeting on planes has been thinned to reduce weight.
• If the runway is long enough, pilots are encouraged to let the plane come to a natural stop rather than burn fuel on reverse thrusters.

Read other cost saving methods that airlines have utilized on The Economist.