Here's a sentence that I probably couldn't have imagined writing a few years ago:

So many Americans are predicted to drop so many pounds so quickly (as a result of the rise of Ozempic and other similar weight loss drugs), that an analyst predicts their collective weight loss will mean massive savings for airlines.

As an example, Sheila Kahyaoglu, an analyst at Jefferies Financial, estimated recently that United Airlines could save $80 million per year in fuel costs if these drugs result in the average American losing about 10 pounds.

(Assume about 179 passengers on average on each United Airlines aircraft, so that works out to 1,790 fewer pounds per flight. United says on its website that it has 4,500 daily flights, so that would add up to moving almost 1.5 million fewer tons per year.)

To be sure, the airlines aren't the only industry that could see big changes as a result of these weight loss drugs. Some analysts think it will lead to lower food sales, and especially lower sales of snacks, fast-food, and drinks. Walmart says it's already seeing this trend.

But I write a ton about the airline industry, and one of the recurring trends is the extreme lengths they go to, to try to save money on fuel costs by trimming the weight they have to carry — anywhere they can find it.

Just for the fun of it, let's go to the history books. Examples include:

• Thinner magazines. Yes, airlines still have in-flight magazines. United changed the card stock for its in-flight magazines to make them lighter, which meant carrying 20 or 30 fewer pounds on every flight. A report at the time said it saved $300,000 per year.
• Getting rid of seatback video screens, or at least not adding them to new aircraft. Imagine 180 seats, and maybe each video screen weighs 5 pounds. That's 900 pounds, and if we're using the magazines above as a point of reference, maybe $7.5 million in fuel costs.
• Lighter drink carts. "Ours were 50 pounds, and we got them down to 27 pounds," a spokesman for United told me a few years ago when I did an article about this. Figure that's another $300,000.
• Thinner seats. We tend to get used to things, so you might just have to take my word for it, but airline seats are a lot thinner (and ironically, lighter) now than they were a few years ago. United said the thinner seats make a single Airbus A320 1,200 pounds lighter, which works out to roughly $10 million per year.
• Fewer olives. This one is classic: American Airlines removed once removed an olive from each salad it served onboard; that tiny bit of weight-not-carried added up to roughly $100,000 savings in modern dollars.
• Less fuel. An airliner that doesn't need as much fuel to fly its route saves even more weight, because it doesn't have to carry the fuel it doesn't need. Since a single gallon of jet fuel weighs 6.8 pounds, and an A320 or a Boeing 737 can carry about 6,000 gallons of fuel, that adds up.

Let's just take a moment to remember the Gimli glider, an Air Canada flight in 1983 that had to make an emergency landing because it ran out of fuel due to a miscalculation. I mention this because before I heard that story, it never occurred to me that airliners don't just fill their tanks to the top, like you probably do with you car.

But, I digress. Boy, did I ever.

Anyway, it's good that we're all collectively losing weight. It's almost impossible to quantify just how it will affect other industries—like fast food, for example, but to the extent that any particular business cares what my emotions are toward it, I'm happy for the airlines that they will ultimately save money without having to do a single thing.

As long as they're saving so much weight, however, I have a final request: Do you think we can get the extra olive back?

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7 other things worth knowing today

• A pilot riding in the extra seat in the cockpit of a Horizon Air passenger jet tried to shut down the engines in midflight and had to be subdued by the two pilots. Authorities identified the man as Joseph David Emerson, 44. He was being held Monday on 83 counts each of attempted murder and reckless endangerment and one count of endangering an aircraft. (ABC News)
• Israel says captured Hamas terrorists have told them they were to be given an apartment and paid $10,000 for every hostage they brought back to Gaza. Another Israeli Defense Force account says an all-female infantry unit killed more than 100 invaders. Obviously I have no way to check these stories, but I'm sharing them for your review. (Jerusalem Post; second article)
• The world’s largest economy probably expanded at the quickest pace in nearly two years during the third quarter on the back of a steadfast US consumer, a challenge for Federal Reserve officials who are debating whether additional policy tightening is needed. The growth illustrates that the US remains the global economic powerhouse as Europe stagnates and Asia contends with a struggling China. (Bloomberg)
• A Texas judge doesn’t want to marry gay couples. The Supreme Court will soon hear her case. (Dallas Morning News)
• Michigan State is apologizing after an image of Adolf Hitler appeared on a Spartan Stadium video board Saturday night prior to its game against Michigan. Multiple images circulating on social media on Saturday show an image of the Nazi leader’s face on the stadium’s largest scoreboard, alongside a trivia question answer about his birthplace. Michigan State said the scoreboard content came from a third-party source. The school will no longer use that source and will update its screening procedures. (MLive)
• Forget astronaut space walks or brief rocket rides — within the next 20 years, NASA predicts that Americans will be moving … to the moon. “We’re at a pivotal moment, and in some ways, it feels like a dream sequence,” Niki Werkheiser, NASA’s director of technology maturation, said. “In other ways, it feels like it was inevitable that we would get here … We’ve got the right people together at the right time with a common goal, which is why I think we’ll get there.” (Apartment Therapy ... unusual source, I know but this is where I saw it first)
• A teenager was having a stroke. His dog was the first to notice something wrong, and refused to leave his side until his parents were alerted. The dog's warnings made a ‘massive’ difference in the teen's outcome, doctors say. (Today.com)

Thanks for reading, and a special welcome to the 87 new readers who subscribed to Understandably since the last edition of this newsletter! I wrote about some of this before at Inc.com. See you bright and early tomorrow.