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Goodbye Sky Mall

Since 1990, SkyMall has given bored airplane passengers a catalog full of wacky products to look through. Weird things like glow in the dark toilet seats, Bigfoot garden yeti statues and squirrel tree climber sculptures have all been sold by the catalog.

SkyMall dared to sell the kind of things nobody else would sell, and apparently that equated to selling the kind of things nobody else would buy because the company filed for bankruptcy Jan. 23.

According to the company, its failure is due to the increased prevalence of Internet usage on commercial airlines. People have the ability to browse the Internet on their phones or laptops while flying now, eliminating the stagnant boredom that often led to passengers perusing the peculiar periodical.

The loss of SkyMall seems to be a symptom of our time. Printed media is becoming less common in this digital era, or maybe the demand for robots that clean grills has stopped completely.

Interestingly enough, however, the elimination of the SkyMall catalog from planes might just save airlines hundreds of thousands of dollars in jet fuel. Lighter jets means less fuel needed, and even though the magazines don’t weigh much, jet fuel is expensive and every little bit of weight adds up.

Wired.com crunched the numbers when American Airlines revealed how much money was saved on fuel after they gave all of their pilots iPads, replacing the much heavier pilot’s manual. It is estimated that American Airlines may save over $350,000 on fuel by getting rid of the SkyMall catalog.

You might not be able to browse the famous airline catalog physically anymore, but as of right now the SkyMall website is still fully functional and chocked full of oddball items for sale. It is uncertain how long the website will remain active, so if you want to get yourself an $80,000 personal submarine, you better act now.

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