Would You Pay for Airline Food?

Close watchers of the airline industry might have seen it, but some folks no doubt missed Paul Nyhan's story in Saturday's edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that reported Alaska Airlines' (NYSE: ALK  ) plans to experiment with $5 meals on some of its flights to Mexico next year. Fliers will no doubt have a range of opinions on the story; investors, meanwhile, will likely simply nod their heads in understanding.

That's because airlines are increasingly looking for ways to save money -- from selective routing a la Southwest (NYSE: LUV  ) and JetBlue (Nasdaq: JBLU  ) , to the no-frills-and-then-some service of Ryanair (Nasdaq: RYAAY  ) , to mergers like that of Air France and KLM (NYSE: AKH  ) as alternatives to pulling a US Airways, United, or ATA and filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Delta (NYSE: DAL  ) , which already sells meals on longer flights, is just one company that's battled back of late.

I happen to enjoy flights on Alaska, which I've found to be a customer-friendly airline with good service and competitive prices on appealing flights. Personally, meanwhile, I have to think that airlines have generally been slow to scale back meal service -- especially since it's difficult to believe that most folks on anything but long flights look forward to much more than a ginger ale or apple juice, two things many grown-ups won't bother drinking anywhere else.

As a flier, however, I suspect that a move like this would be pretty tough to swallow. Airports, especially those that get revamped, are gradually becoming better places to shop and eat; Alaska would have to put together a pretty strong offering, even at $5, for me to bother taking a chance on it at all. Indeed, the company apparently plans "hearty sandwiches," which sounds a lot more appetizing than "chickenorfish."

And I can hear the stand-up comics lining up to take first crack at this move even now. Heck, the marketing to convince me that it's worth a try might not be worth the money spent. Still, you can't fault 'em for trying. Any old airport, you might say, in a storm.

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Fool contributor Dave Marino-Nachison doesn't own any of the companies in this article.