Plane tickets more expensive for heavier passengers

Your weight should determine the price of your plane ticket. Ridiculous notion or perhaps not such a bad idea? Overweight cabin crew in India are already being grounded, and now the horizontally challenged are once again the target of possible discrimination. Norwegian professor of economics Bharat P. Bhatta presented a proposal this week for major cost savings in the aviation industry. Dr. Bhatta is suggesting making plane tickets more expensive for those who weigh more, introducing a so-called 'fat duty'.

Heavier people, worse kerosene economy

If you weigh more, this automatically causes the aircraft to burn more fuel. The heavier the plane, the more fuel the plane uses. This is one of the professor's arguments to increase ticket prices for overweight people. His proposal would include a base price. Those who weigh less than the average person would then pay less; those heavier than average would pay a surcharge for their ticket.

Heavier people take up more space

Heavier and thus bigger passengers also take up more space, which according to the professor is another reason to make prices for plane tickets dependent on weight. Many airlines now offer 'corpulent' passengers the option of booking a second seat at a reduced rate. The reduced rate is where there's currently an issue, says the professor. 

Recently, an American passenger died because she was unable to take a flight. The woman was ill and needed to travel from Europe to the U.S., but the airline was unfortunately unable to let her travel safely with them.