Can we learn from the airline industry?

According to this Forbes.com article, U.S. Airways Group announced earlier this week that it was discontinuing in-flight movies on domestic flights starting in November. The move is part of the airline industry's ongoing effort to reduce costs to offset soaring fuel prices, which isn't surprising, but what is shocking is that removing the 500-pound in-flight entertainment systems will save the airline $10 million annually.

What appalls me about this is just how bloated the airline industry had been operating all these years. Can you believe that one airline spent $10 million a year paying for in-flight movies that maybe half the plane watched? How many episodes of CBS Eye on American or mediocre Matthew McConaughey movies did you actually watch?

Most people, especially busy business travelers like A/E firm owners, use the time on a flight to catch up on work, play on their computer, read, listen to music, or go to sleep. The fact that $10 million each year was wasted on this nonsense is galling.

The lesson in this for the A/E industry? Take a look at your operations. Are you as lean as you can be? Is there fat you can trim? While I doubt there are any $10 million expenses you can trim, you may find some places to cut expenses without cutting people.

Ed