A Norwegian academic has suggested passengers be charged airfares based on their weight.
Dr Bharat P Bhatta believes charging overweight passengers more would help airlines recoup the cost of extra fuel required to carry them. He has offered three proposals in this month’s Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management.
One idea would dictate a fixed rate for kilograms per passenger. The second suggestion is to charge a standard base rate with an additional cost for overweight customers and discount for lighter passengers.
However, Dr Bhattas’ most favoured option would be to charge passengers based on three categories – heavy, normal and light.
“I think the simplest way to implement this would be for passengers to declare their weight when buying a plane ticket,” Dr Bhatta Sogn og Fjordane University College told The Daily Telegraph. “This would save time and eliminate expense.
“At the airport airlines could randomly select passengers and if they lied about their weight they would have to pay the fat fare and a penalty.”
Editor of the Journal Dr Ian Yeoman supported this proposal. He said: “As the airline industry is fraught with financial difficulties, maybe they should be looking to introduce scales at the check-in.”