The In-Flight Magazine - Please Let You Be...

I love to travel. There is no disputing that statement whatsoever. For any excuse (and if I have the money to do so), I will jet off somewhere because I want to. I usually travel economy because its all I can afford right now but I'm young and ambitious!

In my life, one thing that has remained constant through all my travels was the in-flight magazine in the seat pocket - and I have been traveling since I was very young.

Before the days of individual screens that had different channels for different films, television shows, or music videos, I would read the magazine. It also helped that when I was younger, I was an avid reader and could easily amuse myself with just about any publication. I'm still an avid reader and a regular library and bookstore-goer!

I don't remember any of the articles written since these magazines are more of a diversion rather than an intellectual gain for me but one thing that I've noticed now is how much of a preview these publications were for the places I was going to visit.

One example was earlier this year when I was traveling from Cairo to Abu Dhabi and the magazine on board the Etihad Airbus was talking about the upcoming Red Bull Air Race as well as current events happening in the Emirate and the best malls to go shopping.

Another such example is when I was on a flight from London to Baku several years back and being on a smaller aircraft (Airbus A320) than the one that got me across the pond (A brand new Boeing 777 at the time), you pretty much had to entertain yourself by reading a book or a magazine but I digress.

The fact was, this magazine - even though it was an English publication (I'll let you guess which airline!) - gave me such a good preview of the city of Baku and the country of Azerbaijan. It also gave a really good preview of Iran and the city of Tehran as well as other locales within Western and Central Asia.

In my short life - and also my shorter adult life - the great majority of my traveling was for pleasure and while these magazines are great, I found them and their tidbits of information more suitable for the business traveler - a sort of Lonely Planet for the businessman or woman who might have a bit of time at the end for sightseeing.

That still didn't divert me from reading them. What has kept me interested in the magazines was the fleet information of the airlines involving either photographs or drawings of the various aircraft in the fleet.

I plead guilty to tearing out those pages when I was younger! I also plead guilty to actually taking the magazines themselves either because apart from the destination previews, the articles were interesting or there were some really nice photographs. They served as a great diversion within the cabin but once I was out and about, these magazines went to the wayside. I guess there's a formula - or the articles are so boring that because you have nothing else to do on the plane, you might as well read it to pass the time!

I write this entry because of something I read from a while back about how Emirates Airlines planned to get rid of their in-flight magazines to save on fuel and in my opinion, that's getting rid of an institution in air travel. Instead, the magazine can be read on the screen in front of you.

Maybe it's just me, but I would rather prefer to read something that I can hold in my hand like a book and not having that makes me kind of uncomfortable. I guess nearly 20 years of reading books can do that to you!

I've flown on Emirates before and I really liked their magazine, although I was more awed at the time with their seatback screens and remotes some 15 years back - something I'd never seen before but is now pretty common on all medium to long-haul - and even short haul for some airlines' - flights.

So far, the Dubai-based airline is the only one to have taken away the magazines but I'm sure other things could've been done to save on fuel. I suppose every little bit adds up in the end.

I guess I'm just a young idealist with a very romantic view of the past and the in-flight magazine gives me that view of a time when flying to a far off locale was a very adventurous thing to do...