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In this era of dear oil, every pound counts.
Anyone who’s ever flown on small aircraft knows the importance of weight. They tally both luggage and passengers, which dictates how much fuel the plane will need and probably tells the pilot a thing or two about takeoff and landing. As the price of oil climbs, airlines may want to take this into account. There could be a considerable cost difference between a 30-pound child and a 200-pound adult, yet the price of those tickets today are the same. This could also be yet another reason to address the obesity epidemic.
This photo, courtesy of Flickr, shows the American Airlines seatbelt extender. If you need one of these, perhaps you should also pay extra for the fuel it will take to haul your butt from LAX to JFK? There are families of three that don’t weigh as much as someone who needs a seatbelt extender.
What are your thoughts?
Update: There is an airline that charges by the pound called Derrie-Air. It’s $2.25/pound from Philly to LA.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Erin // Jun 11, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Those who are overweight absolutely should pay a surcharge. Airplane fuel consumption is directly tied to the aircraft’s total gross weight. Why should I, who weighs 125 pounds at 5’9″ and causes less drag, pay the same amount as someone the same height who weighs 200 or 250 pounds? To keep things simple, charging only those who need a seatbelt extender seems reasonable — even though it probably would let many who are overweight off the hook. As an alternative, the airlines could set total weight limits: the person plus his/her bags. Anyone over the limit pays extra; the number of bags per person would be restricted only according to how it impacts the total weight figure.
2 Tonight's Word: U.S. Airweighs | Max Gladwell // Jun 12, 2008 at 8:44 am
[...] of Social MediaGreen & Clean Mom on Be a Beacon: The First Principle of Social MediaErin on Should Airlines Charge People by the Pound?The Wiki Philosophy of Jimmy Wales | Max Gladwell on Wikia Search Has the Results You WantLynn from [...]
3 marguerite manteau-rao // Jun 13, 2008 at 12:00 pm
At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, I say yes, airline passengers should be charged by the pound. Why should I bear the external cost of someone else’s oversize body expanding past the armrest? There is also the issue of the burden placed on society as a whole, in terms of sky rocketing health care costs, unfair use of food resources, over-reliance on ‘lazy’, gas hungry mode of transportations, and resulting increased carbon emissions.
Not that I don’t empathize with the plight of overweight folks. It ain’t easy getting out of the obesity cycle, within our current cultural context.
While I am at it, I would also emphasize another way of being more efficient with our food use:
http://lamarguerite.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/americans-waste-one-quarter-of-their-food/
4 Max Gladwell // Jun 13, 2008 at 1:04 pm
As insensitive or politically incorrect as it may sound, it just makes sense. How does UPS charge for shipping a package? By weight. It costs more to ship a 50-pound package than a 10-pound package. No one has a problem with that because it makes sense. I’m sure we can come up with a way that doesn’t embarrass people, but these are legitimate costs.
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