Budget airline considers 'fat tax' for tubby travellers

Friday, April 24, 2009

By Joshua Crouthamel
MSN NZ Travel writer

Budget European airline Ryanair is considering charging overweight passengers a 'fat tax' after a recent survey revealed that 30,000 of their customers would support such a move.

Over 100,000 Ryanair customers responded to the survey about additional fees the airline could levy, with the results as follows:

30,000 feel that 'fat' passengers should pay an excess weight fee
25,000 are amenable to paying one euro for toilet paper
24,000 passengers want the option of paying three euros to smoke in the lavatory
14,000 travellers feel that Ryanair should come with an annual subscription fee
8,000 passengers would opt to pay a two euro BYO 'corkage fee'

The airline is now left to consider how to levy a 'fat tax'. They are considering the following criteria:

Charge males for every kilo they carry over 130kg, and females for every kilo over 100kg
Charge males for every waist inch over 45", and females for every waist inch over 40"
Charge passengers for every BMI point over 40 (30 is considered technically obese)
Automatically apply a two-seat charge if a passenger's waist touches both armrests in a standard economy seat

The public is invited to vote on which method the airline should use on the Ryanair website.

Company spokesman Stephen McNamara says that the fat tax will only apply to "really large passengers who invade the space of the passengers sitting beside them".

Do you think passengers should be charged for their personal 'excess weight'? Do you reckon this is discriminatory, or in the best interests of everyone on-board? Or, do you think this is just another publicity stunt by Ryanair?

More information

User comments

My there are some nasty people out there. Its funny as I am classed as clinically obease, at 5 foot nothing weighing in at 94kg yep Im fat yep Im obease. I probably do more exercise than most skinny people infact I work out every day sometimes twice a day, yet my weight stays the same. I still manage to fit in economy without rolling over the edge, nor do I smell bad, sweat excessively or snore, where will it end, what about annoying child tax, excessively loud people tax, extra tall people tax, tax against prejudice people, Really you lot should stop stereo typing, as some have said would you charge some of our larger rugby league boys who are muscle and weigh more than the stated fat tax would allow? I think not they take up just as much room. Now listen here skinny people why do you need more luggage??? if you are all so skinny does that not mean your clothes are smaller and therefore you can get more into your 20kg luggage allowance?

I think they should take this further. They should give you a total weight allowance per passenger to spend between personal weight and luggage weight. So like if the limit was 110 kgs for men and you were 70kgs you would have 40kgs of luggage allowed, whereas if you were 100kg you would only have 10kg and would have to pay a fee to be allowed extra luggage. I've always thought it's unfair that I weight so much less than some passengers and yet we're set the same baggage restrictions when flying. I think this would encourage healthier lifestyles!

You Spin my head right round right round when the Fattys go down down, now stop moaning and pay up or get skinny. Stop making us skinny people suffer on the planes cos of your bad eating habits. I just hate sitting next to a fat person and get squashed everytime he or she had to go to the Loo.Live alone the smell and the snoring when they sleep. Get over it fix your problems or take a boat.

I think it is a good idea to include a fat tax on aircraft. As a regular flyer, it gets annoying having fattys sitting next to me taking up all the space, breathing heavily, smelling etc. But I also think its preposterous that fat people are asking for bigger seats to accomodate them. Why should the airlines have to change the whole aircrafts seating just to accomodate for a certain group of lazy gluttons? I have reasonably wide shoulders and am quite muscly from regularly going to the gym, but I am able to fit in the seats they offer in economy class comfortably. There never been problems like this in earlier times. People didnt used to be this huge, and I get so angry when fattys and even some magazine articles (probably written by fattys) try and claim that it is not their own doing, and it is all down to genetics, etc. Tell me then why when you look at photos from the 50s, 60s, 70s etc that there is hardly any fat people? Why there were no fat people in the concentration camps?

The last time I travel with my friend to Aussie, my friend sat next to a Fat guy and I mean Fat trying to squeeze into the seat, its not that long to travel to Aussie but it seems soooo long with the way this Fat guy was snoring away. I still think they should build bigger planes bigger seats for fat people. There's the solution end of story. I myself is skinny so I Donot want to sit next to a fat person and have to put up with the smell the snoring and whatever. Pay Up or Stay away from the planes, take a Boat.

Why should the people with a lower BMI pay for the excess fuel used by fat people. Pay for what you use, you do in all other aspects of life!!! Don't expect a free ride on the back of others, you cost us enough in health care as it is!!!! Get to the GYM and get a proper diet. Airlines should also employ sniffer dogs to detect offensive body odour, most people hate the smell of smoke but 3 to 6 hours of BO is disgusting, stop being selfish and think of your fellow passengers, clean clothes a shower combined with deodorant works wonders. The airlines could always section the plane off to allow all the fat and smelly people to sit together with little air fresheners, that would work for me.

There is such a thing as EEO. This prejudices against anyone who is a big person. Using the word fat is a major insult. Anyone who introduces something like this should be taken to court and sued. This tax actually prejudices against people who are big. Are you going to make someone like Valerie Vili pay it, a World and Olympic Champion Shot Putter, or the All Blacks. I think not. You think its easy when you are 6 foot 4 sitting in Economy, knees jammed up to the seat in front of you and I have many friends taller than me. How many Islanders are normal size on a BMI. From my family, pretty much none. I have nephews taller than me. What I find amusing is having to pay adult rates for my kids on planes because the adult rate starts at 12? My girls are adults on a plane but not on the ground? Ridiculous. And to those ignorant people who agree with it. I'm sorry you are short and too skinny. Maybe you can get it introduced on buses, taxis and trains as well.

I think a fat tax is entirely fair. Why is it that a 60kg person and a 130kg person only receive the same baggage allowance and pay the same amount to fly? What people seem to be forgetting is that this is a Ryanair initiative and is not going to become standard for every airline the world over. If you don't like the idea of a fat tax and you're the other side of 130kg, there are still hundreds of airlines out there where you won't be discriminated against. Someone commented on the fact that muscle weighs more than fat and therefore muscle-bound sportspeople may be unfairly stung - that's a possibility, but consider somebody like Jonah Lomu, who weighed in at close to 130kg. I'd have no issue sitting next to him on a flight - but if you take someone of similar weight who is all fat, that'd be uncomfortable - fat spills over onto adjacent seats, muscle doesn't! To sum, I think it's a logical move from a business standpoint and if you don't like it, you can fly with another carrier...

I can not believe how some people are unbelievably narrow minded!!! Some of the comments I've read around this Fat Tax are ridiculous if you know or thought about the facts! Do they not know that a MAJORITY of overweight people do exercise but don't lose weight? Why? Because there is a combination of things that need to happen and not just EXERCISE as someone suggested! Do they then also not know that 70% of overweight people are MEDICALLY unable to lose weight? So should they then be charged for something they can't help just like perhaps the mole on your face or the hair on your back? Heres a fact for all you who AGREE to the fact tax without even thinking about it!!! MUSCLE weighs more than FAT!!!! So what then, huh?? Should we then class someone who weighs more than the average man or woman like our league and rugby players, weight lifters, shot putters, wrestlers, athletes and the list goes on, to be classed as EXCESS WEIGHT??? Huh??!!

If i pay for a seat on a plane, i expect to be able to comfortably sit in that seat without having to lean to the side for 6 hours like i did on my last flight to auckland. its really uncomfortable to have to say 'excuse me sir, can you please remove your butt from under the arm rest and stomach from on top of it?' my ticket i paid for was to have the seat to myself, not 75% myself and 25% sweaty fat man breathing heavily and stinking and leaning over both sides of his seat. but theres no need to charge extra and still cram them in to the same seat, just put them in business class where the seats fit, much the same as tall people would have to do, without complaining and whining.