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Academic calls for pay as you weigh flight fares
The Telegraph ^ | 3/25/2013 | David Millward

Posted on 03/24/2013 6:09:12 PM PDT by markomalley

Charging overweight fliers more would help carriers recoup the cost of the extra fuel required to carry them.

The idea has been floated in the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management publication, by Bharat P Bhatta, an academic in Norway.

He suggests three methods of implementing the scheme. A straightforward price per kilogram, a fixed low fare with heavier passengers paying a surcharge and lighter passengers being offered a discount.

The third option would see passengers divided into three bands – heavy, normal and light and being charged accordingly.

“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.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: airlines; freemarket; ivorytowerdom; payasyouweigh
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1 posted on 03/24/2013 6:09:12 PM PDT by markomalley
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To: markomalley

Punish people for their flaws and make money doing it. It’s the liberal way.


2 posted on 03/24/2013 6:13:32 PM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: markomalley

Didn’t some airline have a marketing gimmick like this 20-30 years ago?


3 posted on 03/24/2013 6:14:39 PM PDT by posterchild (Remember that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return.)
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To: markomalley

Public transportation is always subsidized and never makes any where near break even income. So why can’t riders pay the total cost of transportation?


4 posted on 03/24/2013 6:16:48 PM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: markomalley

How about we charge academics for their increased drag on society.


5 posted on 03/24/2013 6:18:23 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: jsanders2001
Punish people for their flaws and make money doing it. It’s the liberal way.

So who do you think should mandate how the airline structures their pricing?

6 posted on 03/24/2013 6:19:32 PM PDT by nascarnation (Baraq's economic policy: trickle up poverty)
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To: markomalley

this would disproportionally target democrats.

especially the middle aged black women who the CDC finds are the fattest of the Fatties.

And Hispanics after them


7 posted on 03/24/2013 6:20:18 PM PDT by digger48
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To: markomalley

How about letting the competing airlines set their rates in any manner they see fit, and let the market decide...


8 posted on 03/24/2013 6:20:35 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: jsanders2001
Cost for freight shipment is directly related to package weight.

Same goes for passengers.

I'm all for letting the market handle it.

/johnny

9 posted on 03/24/2013 6:21:15 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: markomalley

Why not tie this into the TSA screening. Clearly a groper is going to have a good feel, so-to-speak, for how rotund each enroute passenger is, and what weight factor they will be on the flight.

Shouldn’t a TSA screening suffice as a medical checkup?

I’d presume its a matter of time before TSA screening, TSA x-rays, your personal rotundity level, will be linked up with your Øbamacare record.


10 posted on 03/24/2013 6:21:29 PM PDT by C210N (When people fear government there is tyranny; when government fears people there is liberty)
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To: markomalley
Does this Academic know what happens when you ask an average woman to step on a scale?
11 posted on 03/24/2013 6:26:28 PM PDT by ZOOKER
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To: markomalley

Why don’t we just produce more gas since electric jet airlines will not be happening anytime soon?


12 posted on 03/24/2013 6:26:59 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
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To: jsanders2001
"Academic calls for pay as you weigh flight fares"

If the brothels adopt the inverse I could probably live with it.

13 posted on 03/24/2013 6:27:14 PM PDT by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: markomalley

Lol, during the 1980s I smoked (since quit) and had a coworker who was forty or so pounds overweight. He liked to take the moral high ground concerning smoking, an anti-smoking Nazi, but of course, didn’t think his extra forty or so pounds merited any criticism.

I once told him that one day he and other overweight passengers would be charged extra by airlines since weight was a major restriction on how much a plane could carry, and therefore, how much profit could be made.

He thought I was nuts, but I assured him that there were people who’d try to make it so some day. Don’t know if it will happen, but I’d forward this to him if I know his email address.


14 posted on 03/24/2013 6:27:44 PM PDT by Will88
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To: jsanders2001

I am getting a little tired of this discrimination of heavy people.

First we have the Wide Load Michelle trying to tell us how to raise our children. Then we have CVS telling their employees what to do and how much to weigh, then we have Doctors required to pimp on us to the Govt. in Obamacare.

We cannot discriminate against illegals, minorities,Muslims, gays, or idiots, but it’s fine to crap all over heavier peopl. The hell with that.


15 posted on 03/24/2013 6:30:13 PM PDT by Venturer
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To: JRandomFreeper
Two points to think about there:

1. One big difference is that freight transportation involves handling of the product in a way that passenger transportation does not. Freight is inanimate and has to be handled often at multiple different points in the transportation process. Almost all passengers, on the other hand, move themselves to and from their seats.

2. Related to #1 ... To get a sense of how big a factor the "handling" process is in transportation, just look at container shipping. Because a shipping container filled with styrofoam peanuts is handled the same way as a container filled with a densely packaged product, there is no difference in shipping costs between the two.

Personally, I have no problem with an airline charging based on passenger weight. But you can be sure that there would be hell to pay when half of the overweight passengers come up with some kind of "disability" that makes the whole plan unworkable.

16 posted on 03/24/2013 6:30:25 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("I am the master of my fate ... I am the captain of my soul.")
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To: markomalley
Bharat P Bhatta, an academic in Norway

Nice honest Norwegian name there. I'll be he loves his cross-country skiing.

17 posted on 03/24/2013 6:30:44 PM PDT by relictele
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To: Joe 6-pack
How about letting the competing airlines set their rates in any manner they see fit, and let the market decide...

That's the way it should be but you know when an academic proposes something it usually involves a government regulation or mandate and a grant to him to study it.

18 posted on 03/24/2013 6:33:02 PM PDT by this_ol_patriot
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To: markomalley

Well I certainly see the basis of this idea-pay by weight has always been the norm for any other kind of shipping. As a tall guy though, I’m not particularly fond of the idea if it is strictly by weight compared to the current system. I am by no means fat as far as seat width goes, but I carry the weight of my height.


19 posted on 03/24/2013 6:35:19 PM PDT by GATOR NAVY
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To: relictele
Nice honest Norwegian name there. I'll be he loves his cross-country skiing.

No native Norwegian would be caught dead coming up with such a politically-incorrect pricing methodology.

20 posted on 03/24/2013 6:36:41 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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