No Ken, of course the bean counters don't play with or analyse weights/fuel costs down to the most minute detail! Why would they, after all fuel and labor are only an airlines two biggest expenses, but of course they don't analyse these things closely!
For Kens benefit (why do I bother) and to provide the proof he so desperately needs, I worked for an overseas domestic carrier. We introduced slide boards to help slide disabled pax onto their seats more comfortably and to minimise staff injury during the transfer process. It was decided to place one slide board on each aircraft. Fleet total = 110. Each slide board weighed 1.1kg. That was then multiplied by 110 aircraft, and those aircraft were multiplied by the average number of cycles per year. Give or take some anomalies such as U/S aircraft, maintenance etc, we calculated the additional fuel costs of carting around those slide boards to be around $130 000 USD per year. Needless to say the slide boards ended up staying at the terminals and used upon request.
Ken, here is some fun for you, in between building model planes. Research why it is that most LCC carriers today don't use the built-in air-stairs? They opt for the rampies to push aluminium mobile stairs up to the aircraft. Now before you say 'serviceability issues' or maintenance costs, think big, think outside the box, think weight of stairs vs aircraft cycles vs fuel vs..............cost. (Now that is a big hint for you!)
So Ken, it is worthwhile for an airline to closely analyse fuel costs.
I would like to use the same matrix on VA, lets say to analyse the combined weight, per aircraft across the fleet annually, of the Voyeur magazines. I think you would be surprised at how much fuel is burned and the associated costs. However, you would need to compare that to the revenue that the magazines bring in, to see whether output is greater or less than the input and the additional fuel costs per annum are worth it. Maybe Il Deuce has already done that, maybe not, and then again maybe Ken can ring John and suggest it
Ken, go back to playing with your remote control helicopter and plane spotting. Your posts get more absurd every time.