Sour Note? Southwest Eliminates Lemons

Contributing Editor Carl Unger believes that every trip is worth taking. He loves an extended trip to Europe as much as he enjoys exploring the towns and landscape near home. Basically, you'll find him wherever there is good food, fresh air, and plenty of stories to bring home.

Carl has been writing for SmarterTravel since 2005. His travel writing has also appeared on USA Today and the About.com Boston travel guide.

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Southwest will no longer offer sliced lemons as part of its beverage service, in a move aimed at limiting waste and saving money: The citrus shedding should save the airline $100,000 a year. The airline will continue offering limes, and will also expand its full beverage service to early morning flights, on which passengers previously could only get coffee, orange juice, or water.

The Airline Biz Blog reports Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins said, “internal feedback indicated the airline really didn’t need to serve both limes and lemons, and limes came out as passengers’ favorite.”

“‘At the end of our 3,200 daily flights, we found an excess of lemons and needless waste,'” he said.

Here’s my question for you, readers: $100,000 is a lot of money, but in the grand scheme of an airline’s budget, is it enough to warrant removing a perk, however trivial? While I doubt too many people will miss the lemons, let alone miss them severely enough to rethink their loyalty to Southwest, I am curious to see what you think about airlines cutting costs in these small but noticeable ways. Leave a comment below with your thoughts, thanks!

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