Airport Guide
Airlines finally deciding to charge obese fliers extra
With the world's airlines currently struggling to cope with falling consumer confidence, as the annual holiday overseas becomes one of the first luxuries to be sacrificed, it should be the case that they are bending over backwards to make their dwindling number of passengers feel welcome.
However, a number of trends emerging over recent weeks show that this is far from the case.
Indeed, now more than ever, some carriers seem intent on making air travel a gruelling and stressful experience.
Coming just a few weeks after Ryanair's chief executive half-jokingly suggested that his airline is looking into charging passengers to use onboard toilets on top of the myriad of additional 'optional' charges they are already bombarded with, it has been reported that one major airline is now clamping down on overweight fliers.
Of course, in the blogosphere and elsewhere, the idea of charging severely obese passengers more has been knocking around for some time, with supporters of such measures arguing that they should be made to pay for their excess weight just as others are now being made to pay extra for baggage.
However, until now, most airlines, understandably, have opted to dodge the issue.
Under newly-announced rules from United Airlines, obese passengers may be 'bumped' from one flight to the next if it is deemed they will take up too much room.
That is, in order to get as many paying passengers onboard as possible, bosses are willing to force overweight customers to wait until an aircraft that is not fully booked is ready to depart.
Should a portly passenger really need to fly on a particular service, their only option is to upgrade to a larger business-class seat, or else swallow their pride and dig deep into their pockets and book two seats for themselves in standard class.
While some passengers are bound to jump on the bandwagon and welcome such a move, for others, this represents the setting of a dangerous precedent and yet another nail in the coffin of flying being a leisurely activity.
"This is an example of the broader negative societal stigma that is very frequently targeted to obese individuals," Yale University obesity researcher Rebecca Puhl told the Guardian.
"You simply cannot charge people for extra tickets. We need to create an equal playing field in the sky where passengers have the same fare."
Notably, this first step has been taken in the United States, where the domestic air travel market is now bouncing back from a difficult few months - just this week the chief executive of Southwest Airlines, the US equivalent of European budget giant Ryanair, revealed that passenger numbers were significantly up in March and April.
As such, if airlines are willing to adopt such policies in a thriving market, how long will it be before those that are doing less well start to cotton on to this booming source of extra revenue?
Of course, it remains to be seen quite how the policy will be implemented and how it is received.
After all, surely telling a 30-stone giant of a man that they will have to pay double for their flight due to their girth would surely be a step too far for even the bravest check-in clerk or air hostess?
However, a number of trends emerging over recent weeks show that this is far from the case.
Indeed, now more than ever, some carriers seem intent on making air travel a gruelling and stressful experience.
Coming just a few weeks after Ryanair's chief executive half-jokingly suggested that his airline is looking into charging passengers to use onboard toilets on top of the myriad of additional 'optional' charges they are already bombarded with, it has been reported that one major airline is now clamping down on overweight fliers.
Of course, in the blogosphere and elsewhere, the idea of charging severely obese passengers more has been knocking around for some time, with supporters of such measures arguing that they should be made to pay for their excess weight just as others are now being made to pay extra for baggage.
However, until now, most airlines, understandably, have opted to dodge the issue.
Under newly-announced rules from United Airlines, obese passengers may be 'bumped' from one flight to the next if it is deemed they will take up too much room.
That is, in order to get as many paying passengers onboard as possible, bosses are willing to force overweight customers to wait until an aircraft that is not fully booked is ready to depart.
Should a portly passenger really need to fly on a particular service, their only option is to upgrade to a larger business-class seat, or else swallow their pride and dig deep into their pockets and book two seats for themselves in standard class.
While some passengers are bound to jump on the bandwagon and welcome such a move, for others, this represents the setting of a dangerous precedent and yet another nail in the coffin of flying being a leisurely activity.
"This is an example of the broader negative societal stigma that is very frequently targeted to obese individuals," Yale University obesity researcher Rebecca Puhl told the Guardian.
"You simply cannot charge people for extra tickets. We need to create an equal playing field in the sky where passengers have the same fare."
Notably, this first step has been taken in the United States, where the domestic air travel market is now bouncing back from a difficult few months - just this week the chief executive of Southwest Airlines, the US equivalent of European budget giant Ryanair, revealed that passenger numbers were significantly up in March and April.
As such, if airlines are willing to adopt such policies in a thriving market, how long will it be before those that are doing less well start to cotton on to this booming source of extra revenue?
Of course, it remains to be seen quite how the policy will be implemented and how it is received.
After all, surely telling a 30-stone giant of a man that they will have to pay double for their flight due to their girth would surely be a step too far for even the bravest check-in clerk or air hostess?
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