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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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To: Graybeard58

don’t they make morbidly obese people buy two seats now?”

I believe Southwest Airlines or perhaps some other airline tried that and I don’t think it flew too well. Can’t remember whether or not it resulted in a lawsuit.

It’s not just how much room they take up though, there is a real issue with how much a seat belt will really extend as well as trying to get someone down an emergency chute who is morbidly obese or even just obese. Not going to happen.

If just one time a plane had to go in wheels up and everyone had to deploy down a chute I think you might see some more attention paid to the safety aspects.

I used to be a flight attendant back in the late 50’s and early 60’s and while I may be old, I still remember my training on how to get an emergency door open and get people down a chute and am still quite physically able to do so now. So I always tried to sit on the emergency evac row. Some little twit of a flight attendant on Delta tried to move me into another “more appropriate seat”. Informed her I was evacuating people out of airplanes long before she was ever born. Guys in my row gave me a thumbs up.


41 posted on 03/24/2013 7:13:38 PM PDT by Grams A (The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)
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To: Graybeard58

good point. I stand corrected. anything is possible now.


42 posted on 03/24/2013 7:16:00 PM PDT by plain talk
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To: markomalley

The cost difference between carrying a 175 pound passenger and a 200 pound passenger would not amount to anything measurable.Why don’t we just make sure that everyone boarding the plane pees and poops before hand.( Of course the genius population in our government would decree that they do the business ON the plane BEFORE takeoff) It makes as much sense. Those faculty lounges in Europe are just as dysfunctional as ours I guess. God Save the Republic!


43 posted on 03/24/2013 7:16:28 PM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: markomalley

simple solution..optional gift card,
for people willing to get
on a scale


44 posted on 03/24/2013 7:17:22 PM PDT by RockyTx
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To: quantim

Overweights may not be socialist government welfare foodstamp munching hoodrats, but they sure are lazy bastards with no respect for their own bodies... not to mention they are the most demanding of others.


45 posted on 03/24/2013 7:25:19 PM PDT by sagar
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To: RockyTx

“passengers to declare their weight when buying a plane ticket,”

Euhm. Yeah, I can totally see that working. Time for scales so you can herd the cattle through the weigh scale! With a big bright number so everyone can see just how much you weigh!

God, I love markets.


46 posted on 03/24/2013 7:25:52 PM PDT by JCBreckenridge (Texas is a state of mind - Steinbeck)
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To: BobL

I suspect there is a reason this isn’t already done. Planes are MASSIVE. Did a quick calculation based on numbers at Wikipedia. If you took a fully loaded 737-300 Southwest airlines plane (so, no first class section to reduce the number of passengers) and filled every single single seat with the average adult American male, the mass of the passengers would be about 25% the total mass of everything. All machines have some start-up inefficiencies — doubling the weight isn’t going to double the fuel consumption because some of that fuel is going to overcoming inefficiencies that are already overcome (friction in the engines, wind resistance — all things that cause fuel consumption but aren’t related to weight), etc. Fuel is not the only cost of operating a plane.

Long story short, the fact that airlines AREN’T doing this already suggests that the increased cost of transporting an overweight flier is less than the cost of implementing such a policy.


47 posted on 03/24/2013 7:28:09 PM PDT by lgwdnbdgr
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To: Grams A

Yep, there are a lot of scenarios where by rights I should be the last guy out.

Collapsed building? The skinny people first, lest I plug the hole.


48 posted on 03/24/2013 7:29:28 PM PDT by null and void (If the government is so worried about civil disturbance, why are they working so hard to disturb us?)
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To: digger48

it’ll be regional... most of the “fatties” are in the south... Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, West Virginia...


49 posted on 03/24/2013 7:34:29 PM PDT by latina4dubya ( self-proclaimed tequila snob)
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To: JCBreckenridge

no need for a big bright readout


50 posted on 03/24/2013 7:35:38 PM PDT by RockyTx
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To: nascarnation
"So who do you think should mandate how the airline structures their pricing? "

Me.

I go for free and everyone else is assessed for the space they occupy and the weight of themselves and their luggage and a surcharge for being a lib and/or obnoxious.

51 posted on 03/24/2013 7:37:05 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: a fool in paradise
"Why don’t we just produce more gas since electric jet airlines will not be happening anytime soon?"

Farters should be given a rebate based on their BTU output.

52 posted on 03/24/2013 7:39:19 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: markomalley
It seems as the current scheme is that the infrequent flier subsidized the frequent flier.

The frequent flier pays less per flight (via frequent flier miles), but pays more over a lifetime because of the volume of travel.

The infrequent flier pays more due to not getting frequent flier discounts, and is essentially buying on the spot market.

This may have been the initial intent, but the linking of credit card spend to accumulated miles has put the airlines into the position of giving away more free seats than they anticipated.

-PJ

53 posted on 03/24/2013 7:40:10 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: Grams A
"Guys in my row gave me a thumbs up."

LOL. U go Gyrl!

54 posted on 03/24/2013 7:42:25 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Don Corleone

If we all flew naked, there would be a savings in weight also.


55 posted on 03/24/2013 7:42:25 PM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
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To: markomalley

Under this policy anorexics could fly for free.


56 posted on 03/24/2013 7:42:38 PM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult (Liberals make unrealistic demands on reality and reality doesn't oblige them.)
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To: nascarnation
Looks like someone let the smoke out of the unit on the right.

There outta be a law...

57 posted on 03/24/2013 7:45:06 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: markomalley

From each according to his weight

To each according to the freight....


58 posted on 03/24/2013 7:47:25 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
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To: lgwdnbdgr
filled every single single seat with the average adult American male

I have a friend who used to work for a commercial aircraft manufacturer and he told me that they do their weight and balance calculations based on an average passenger weight of 170 pounds. Of course, not all passengers weigh 170 pounds, but apparently it evens out. That probably explains why the airlines don't charge passengers by the pound.

59 posted on 03/24/2013 8:11:12 PM PDT by Fast Moving Angel (A moral wrong is not a civil right: No religious sanction of an irreligious act.)
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To: jsanders2001

I think it rates should be based on how much you pee and poop in the br....


60 posted on 03/24/2013 9:36:18 PM PDT by cherry
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