In-flight magazines are gone, and they may never come back

Something was missing on my Delta Air Lines flight home from Charlotte last week: An easy reading magazine.

Flashback: Delta halted printing of its Sky magazine in the early days of the pandemic, but never said if it would bring the lifestyle periodical back.

• Here we are, two years later, and still nothing. I asked Delta if there's any plan to bring the magazine back and got no response.

Local angle: The magazine was published by MSP Communications, then based in Minneapolis, now in St. Paul. At one point, it had a circulation of 5 million.

• MSP Communications laid off its Sky staff following Delta's move.

What they're saying: Delta is not alone. Other major airlines have also canned their in-flight magazines.

• "My gut says this was an expense that airlines decided to cut in the early days of the pandemic and it would be hard for any of them to justify bringing it back," Thrifty Traveler executive editor Kyle Potter tells Axios.