Budget airline considers extra charge for overweight after a third of travellers back idea in survey
Not content with plans to scrap check-in desks, charge passengers for using toilets and clobber customers with a £30 charge if their duty free won't fit into their hand luggage, Ryanair has hit on a new scheme for increasing revenue: a so-called fat tax for overweight travellers.
In what appears as much a ruse to gain publicity as a serious policy, the Irish-based budget carrier said today it would impose an as yet undecided extra levy on passengers who weigh considerably more than average.
The charge, which could fall foul of discrimination laws before it ever takes effect, was proposed following a poll of passengers on the airline's website. It attracted more votes than other ideas, including a €1 levy to use onboard toilet paper, which would have the face of the airline's famously pugnacious chief executive, Michael O'Leary, printed on it. The fat tax gathered nearly a third of all the votes.
The airline now plans to poll passengers on how the charge should be calculated, with ideas including a per-kilo levy for all men weighing more than 130kg (20 stone) and women more than 100kg, or a fixed penalty if a passenger's waist touches both neighbouring armrests at the same time.
"In all cases we've limits at very high levels so that a 'fat tax' will only apply to those really large passengers who invade the space of the passengers sitting beside them," said Stephen McNamara of the airline.
"These charges, if introduced, might also act as an incentive to some of our very large passengers to lose a little weight and hopefully feel a little lighter and healthier."
Several US airlines already oblige very obese passengers who spill over into neighbouring seats to buy a second seat in some cases. Earlier this month, United Airlines said it would do so for travellers whose size made them "infringe on another guest's seat".
Source: The Guardian
