US Air, Parched for Cash, Charges for Drinks

US Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant says that so far, the response from passengers has been underwhelming.

"While it's still very early in the program and we don't have a lot of meaningful hard data yet, the anecdotes coming in by and large indicate that customers understand why we need to do this," Durrant says. "There have been complaints from customers to our customer relations team but in rather small quantities."

Meanwhile, US Airways will retain its "extended onboard delay procedure," which provides that flight attendants offer free drinks to passengers in the event of runway flight delays that exceed 30 minutes. The policy specifies that orange juice, coffee and water should be offered free before 10 a.m., while soft drinks or water should be offered after 10 a.m. The danger, Flores says, is that if the airline reduces drink provisions, it could easily run out of drinks in the event that it provides them free.

Some flight attendants have applauded the program, Durrant said, based on the realization that the carrier needs to raise revenue to combat sharply higher fuel prices, which boosted second-quarter costs by $390 million. The airline says new fees and charges will add $400 million to $500 million in annual revenue, but has not broken out the revenue from drink sales.

US Airways is one of several airlines -- including American(AMR Quote), United(UAUA Quote) and Northwest(NWA Quote) -- to have implemented a $15 fee for checking a single bag.

Appearing on CNBC on Tuesday, US Airways CEO Doug Parker said airlines "need to change the model" to a la carte pricing if they are to survive the fuel cost surge. The drink charge is warranted, he said, because it "is one where those who want to use a service can pay for it." For an airline, it costs about $2 to have caterers provision a plane with a can of soda, and then to fly the soda around until someone drinks it, he said.