Found this story about a Samoan airline to be quite interesting. From the BBC:

 

The head of Samoa Air has defended the airline's decision to start charging passengers according to their weight.

 

Chris Langton told Australia's ABC Radio that it was "the fairest way of travelling".

 

Rather than pay for a seat, passengers pay a fixed price per kilogram, which varies depending on the route length.

 

Samoa Air flies domestically and to American Samoa. It is thought the move could encourage other airlines to introduce similar policies.

 

"Airlines don't run on seats, they run on weight, and particularly the smaller the aircraft you are in the less variance you can accept in terms of the difference in weight between passengers," Mr Langton told ABC radio.

 

"Anyone who travels at times has felt they have been paying for half of the passenger next to them."

 

Under the new model, Mr Langton described how some families with children were now paying cheaper fares.

 

"There are no extra fees in terms of excess baggage or anything - it is just a kilo is a kilo is a kilo," he said.

 

Air Samoa's rates range from $1 (65p) to around $4.16 per kilogram. Passengers pay for the combined weight of themselves and their baggage.

 

Mr Langton also suggested that the move had helped promote health awareness in Samoa, which has one of the world's highest levels of obesity.

 

"People generally are becoming much more weight conscious. That's a health issue in some areas," he told ABC Radio.

 

Mr Langton said he believed that charging by weight was "the concept of the future."

 

"People generally are bigger, wider and taller than they were 50 years ago," he said. "The industry will start looking at this."

 

As someone who's been flying a lot recently, and as someone who would probably see his fares increase if this method was implemented here, it does raise some interesting questions. Does the new policy amount to so-called "fatism", or is it a necessity for airline companies in an industry where margins are so slim (pun unintentional)? Or is it just another way for airlines to make more money out of consumers?

Is this definitely from today rather than yesterday?

 

I must admit that, when I was flying to and from Dublin regularly, it seemed unfair that someone twice my weight had the same baggage allowance as I did. However, surely the cost of implementing such a scheme would outweigh (no pun intended) any extra income.

In Samoa I'd imagine this will be some money maker.

Surely they have to implement larger seats, (no pun intended) to accomodate the individual.

Surely they have to implement larger seats, (no pun intended) to accomodate the individual.

Good job no pun was intended, since there isn't one to be found in this post.

 

Surely they have to implement larger seats, (no pun intended) to accomodate the individual.

Good job no pun was intended, since there isn't one to be found in this post.

 

Oh, Mikey. :lol:

Edited April 3, 201312 yr by Juranamo

I think he might have meant seat as in "arse".

If anyone is going to follow this model it'd be Ryanair, which is fine because I'd rather catch rabies than fly with them.

What strikes me as unfair about a method of this nature is men would naturally have to pay more for flights, overall men do weigh more than women.

not only is this policy sexist against men. It is racist as Chinese and Asian people in general tend to be smaller, and Samonas themselves are larger than most other races....and in most countries it woud be a slippery slope

Edited April 9, 201312 yr by kindagood