Not having to fly SkyMall catalogs around any more could mean big savings for airlines.

SkyMall catalogs will likely disappear from commercial planes, as the mail order company has filed for bankruptcy.

Though that’s sad news for the people who enjoy leafing through them, it could be a big win for the airlines.

Alex Davies from Wired did the math, and it turns out that not having to haul a bunch of catalogs could mean a savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It comes down to the cost of the extra jet fuel it takes to fly all that glossy paper around.

Here’s how he worked that number out.

First he calculated the total per-flight catalog weight. At 4 ounces each and approximately 150 per flight they add up to about 37 pounds.

How that translates into expense was figured using an example provided by American Airlines.

When they ditched their paper manuals and replaced them with iPads they announced that the resulting 67 or so pound drop prevented the use of 400 thousa