TICKET TO READ: In-flight Magazines

This is the chance we’ve been waiting for. An opportunity to strike back, to retaliate for rubbery chicken and wasted hours aloft. To critique the airlines’ in-flight magazines.

To be fair, theirs is a challenging editing task. The breadth of interests among the millions of airline passengers dictates a mind-boggling diversity in story ideas. But airline mags do claim one advantage that other publications can’t: a captive audience. Even if you bring your own reading material, you’re likely to flip through an in-flight publication at least once during your journey. At times, you’ll be enlightened, at others, overcome by ennui. Here, based on a sampling of September issues, are brief rundowns on what to expect.



OZARK MAGAZINE. Ozark’s skies are friendly, y’all, and so is its magazine- a little too chummy for our tastes. The book is peppered with overblown truisms such as “Fall Means Football.” One contents-page blurb, which precedes a solemn column slugged “Hometown,” reads: “Bowling Green, Ohio, was a great place to go to college and the perfect place to learn about the really important things in life.” Need we say more?

UNITED. This is probably the best of the airline magazines. It offers an overall sophistication and readability unmatched by even its more prosperous competitors. We enjoyed the September cover story featuring Paul Newman and were equally entertained by an excerpt from Lincoln by Gore Vidal. United’s gazette-style section upfront (“Communique”) contains some of the freshest material we found.

AMERICAN WAY With 19 (count ’em) features and 10 regular departments, American has cornered the market on the “something-for-everyone” style. Articles plumb topics ranging from snoring to female clergypersons, from foster parents to White House kids. A hefty 15.5 ounces, American Way is in a position to offer its fliers the most for their money. Still, with all that volume, literary standards occasionally fall short. To wit: “Crack a macadamia nut, and you’re sure to crack a smile.”

THE EASTERN REVIEW. This flier’s digest is based on a simple premise: Why bother to reinvent the wheel every month, when there are hundreds of other magazines churning out material by the hour? Eastern simply “chooses items of more than usual interest in cities served by Eastern.” That’s fine, unless you’ve already read Esquire or Smithsonian or Texas Monthly (or D, if you saw Maggie Oman’s “Sorry, Right Number” reprinted in June). Even so, we loved Eastern’s artwork, especially a Magritte-type illustration that accompanied a piece on “Technostress.”

MUSE AIR MONTHLY. Perusing Muse is almost as refreshing as breathing its smoke-free air. The graphics are squeaky-clean; the directives clear and concise; the story lines interesting, if not explosive. Naturally, there is much ado about Texas: feuding in Midland/ Odessa; ballooning in Piano; and broad-stroked visions of Texas real estate, Texas filmmaking, Texas’ future. But there’s little lapse into trite Texana. SKY. Delta’s flying journal is relatively diverse, relatively well-edited and relatively well-designed. But considering the heft of Delta, at least in this hub, a traveler might expect more-especially more witty, wandering short takes a la United’s “Communique.” What Sky lacks in punch, though, it makes up for in abundant color photographs. Some features are predictable; others, original and well-presented.

BRANIFE If you subscribe to the theory that good things come in small packages, then you’ll like Braniff’s in-flight book. At 49 pages (if you count the back cover), it isn’t exactly inundated with either text or advertising. But what’s there is the product of professionals. A profile of Burt Reynolds lent a few insights not gleaned elsewhere; an overview of Las Vegas didn’t. Given that quite a few of the ads are from Braniff itself, this little publication, like the airline itself, has nowhere to go but up.

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES MAGAZINE. Some in-flight magazine editors believe (know?) that fliers, though captive, are inherently restless. The more information they can pack into an easily digested capsule, the better. That’s Southwest. And easy to digest it is. Business types will enjoy the many business miniprofiles; we like the crossword puzzle and the movie reviews. But really, a centerfold “flight attendant of the month”?