22 April 2009
Ryanair considers 'fat tax' for large passengers
Ryanair is considering how to charge a ââ¬Ëœfat taxââ¬â¢ after more than 30,000 passengers voted in favour of charging excess weight fees for very large passengers.
Over 100,000 passengers voted in an online poll to decide which cost reduction idea should win a â'š~¬1,000 cash prize.
The final poll results were as follows:
. 29% - Excess fees for very overweight passengers
. 25% - â'š~¬1 for toilet paper ââ¬' with Oââ¬â¢Learyââ¬â¢s face on it
. 24% - â'š~¬3 to smoke in a converted toilet cubicle
. 14% - Annual subscription to access Ryanair.com
. 8% - â'š~¬2 ââ¬Åâœcorkageââ¬~ fee for passengers who bring their own food onboard.
Ryanair will now consider how to implement such a charge and asked passengers to vote, via www.ryanair.com, on which format the charge should take:
. Charge per kg over 130kg/20 stone (male) and 100kg/15 stone (females)
. Charge per inch for every waist inch over 45 inch (male) and 40 inch (female)
. Charge for every point in excess of 40 points on the Body Mass Index (+30 points is obese)
. Charge for a second seat if passengersââ¬â¢ waist touches both armrests simultaneously.
Ryanairââ¬â¢s Stephen McNamara said: ââ¬ÅâœOver 100,000 passengers logged on to ryanair.com to take part in our competition and almost one in three (over 30,000)think that very large passengers should be asked to pay a fat tax.
ââ¬ÅâœWith passengers voting overwhelmingly for a ââ¬Ëœfat taxââ¬â¢ we are now asking them to suggest which format the charge should take.
ââ¬ÅâœThe above four points seem to us to be the simplest, fairest and administratively easiest to apply.
ââ¬ÅâœIn all cases we have set limits at very high levels so that a ââ¬Ëœfat taxââ¬â¢ will only apply to those really large passengers who invadeââ¬â¢ the space of the passengers sitting beside them.
ââ¬ÅâœThese 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.
ââ¬ÅâœThe revenues from any such fat tax will be used to lower the airfares for all Ryanair passengers yet further. Passengers can vote for their preference on www.ryanair.com until April 27.ââ¬~
* Do you agree with Ryanair's passengers? Do you think Ryanair is seriously considering a 'fat tax', or do you think this is all another publicity stunt?
Send us your views by clicking on ADD A COMMENT below.
By Bev Fearis
Related Stories
Hotels.com to integrate TripAdvsor reviews
Low cost carriers added by Opodo
Grenade attack on Kenyan nightclub
Crystal Cruises revises policy to curb rebating
Queensland Tourism: It's business as usual with some 'challenges'
Support offered as airline is grounded
MOST READ
UPDATED: Cruise ship search suspended leaving 16 passengers unaccounted for
UPDATED: Ferry sinks with 350 on board
Fat passengers should pay more, says ex Qantas finance chief
Amadeus crash hits thousands of travel agents and passengers
I tripped into the lifeboat, says Costa Captain
MOST COMMENTED
Tripadvisor reports major drop in Greek hotel prices
China bans its airlines from joining Emissions Trading Scheme
Only 11% of Brits book their holiday with high street agents
Costa makes compensation offer to passengers
Mole Poll
Is the requirement for travel brochures a thing of the past?
LATEST MOLES' GALLERIES
UPCOMING EVENTS
- 18 February 2012
Bay Area Travel and Adventure Show
San Francisco, United States - 05 March 2012
Unite Indian Ocean, Africa & Middle East
London, United Kingdom - 12 March 2012
Unite Caribbean
London, UK - 13 March 2012
Unite Pacific & Australasia
London, UK
- 17 March 2012
Washington DC Travel and Adventure Show
Washington DC, United States - 01 November 2012
The British Travel Awards
London, United Kingdom
Sponsored features
Three years after Katrinaââ¬~¦
The come back may not be as visually dramatic as 35-foot tidal surges or collapsed houses reduced to matchstick piles, but coastal Mississippiââ¬â¢s recovery makes a powerful story in itself.
Interested in advertising or
sponsoring in TravelMole.com?
You can book now your advertisement for via our online booking service or find out more.
Post your comment
Your Comments (50)
How confortable can travel an obese person occupying 2 seats? And after double paying, or after paying a fat tax... It is a question of safety, to avoid to bother the passenger next to the obese people, to protect the environment,... OK, then let's find a solution, but the problem is not obese passengers (simply give them an appropiate seat, confortable and safe) the problem is also airlines traying to do money stuffing their airplains with more passengers, with not enough room for your legs, or your arms. Sometimes I feel me like cattle, but I am 163 cm height and 52kilos weight...
By Maria Isabel Guerrero, Tuesday, April 28, 2009
How confortable can travel an obese person occupying 2 seats? And after double paying, or after paying a fat tax... It is a question of safety, to avoid to bother the passenger next to the obese people, to protect the environment,... OK, then let's find a solution, but the problem is not obese passengers (simply give them an appropiate seat, confortable and safe) the problem is also airlines trying to do money stuffing their airplanes with more passengers, with not enough room for your legs, or your arms. Sometimes I feel me like cattle, but I am 163 cm height and 52kilos weight...
By Ally Jones, Friday, April 24, 2009
Wow! Some comment stream: probably the best, most humorous and impassioned I've seen on PH. Dear Michael... are you really that desperate? I can just see the meeting where these suggestions were considered! Your staff have interminable problems policing your hand luggage rule: which may or may not quite fit your 'If it goes in - it goes on (weight within reason)' statement. So someone suspects at the 'Gate' that a passenger may be marginally over the Body Mass Index, weight, or 'can you get the armrests down?' rule? What are they going to do? What if one person is thin and overweight 'X' and another wide and overweight 'X'??? One passes and the other doesn't? Are you going to pay for a BMI index meter, scales, seat arm replica at the check in and the gate???!! Are you ready for the unfair discrimination and invasion of privacy suits of people put through the ignominious set of tests? What of someone who passes the test at the check-in and fails at the gate after an all-day breakfast and a couple of lagers whilst awaiting a departure delay? Do you wait a decent interval for them to 'let matters pass through the system' before weighing and boarding? Come On Ryanair you have got to be crazy. A few years ago supermarkets used to stock up to a ladies size 16 if you were lucky... now they tend to go to 22 or 24 given the average size growth of women: why have you not changed and provided a seat that 99% of people can fit in with comfort??? Are you actually listening and learning or just carping that some can't fit a standard quart into your pint sized pot? If I were to say, I am type 2 diabetic, my system does not deal with digestion and management of fats and energy as it should and even with eating on the basis of a strict nutritional programme, it still doesn't work and I still gain a little weight each month. Accomplia was withdrawn a while back - which was a hell of a setback for me as it regulated my diabetes well and I was steadily losing weight. I fit into your seats: just... with a seat extension. I pay as everyone else does. I keep my elbows in and gravitate towards my other half's seat to avoid annoying anyone else. You want to penalise me: go on... there are plenty of EasyJet routes available - you'll just lose a potentially loyal customer. What are you going to do about parents with screaming kids (because of ear ache) penalise their injury? Over-boisterous Hen and Stag Party people annoying people with loud accounts of their exploits: penalise their exhilaration? Michael, to say you have lost the plot would be an understatement... so go ahead, try it... and while you do, remember Mrs Thatcher thought the Poll Tax was a 'neat' idea to generate more income and the injustice of it did for her government and ultimately for her! Sometimes the moving finger writers...; here you are writing your own unnecessary disaster yourself. Inequity is one of the strongest feelings that there is: mess with it at your peril! T
By Tony Jolley, Friday, April 24, 2009
Wow! Some comment stream: probably the best, most humorous and impassioned I've seen on PH. Dear Michael... are you really that desperate? I can just see the meeting where these suggestions were considered! Your staff have interminable problems policing your hand luggage rule: which may or may not quite fit your 'If it goes in - it goes on (weight within reason)' statement. So someone suspects at the 'Gate' that a passenger may be marginally over the Body Mass Index, weight, or 'can you get the armrests down?' rule? What are they going to do? What if one person is thin and overweight 'X' and another wide and overweight 'X'??? One passes and the other doesn't? Are you going to pay for a BMI index meter, scales, seat arm replica at the check in and the gate???!! Are you ready for the unfair discrimination and invasion of privacy suits of people put through the ignominious set of tests? What of someone who passes the test at the check-in and fails at the gate after an all-day breakfast and a couple of lagers whilst awaiting a departure delay? Do you wait a decent interval for them to 'let matters pass through the system' before weighing and boarding? Come On Ryanair you have got to be crazy. A few years ago supermarkets used to stock up to a ladies size 16 if you were lucky... now they tend to go to 22 or 24 given the average size growth of women: why have you not changed and provided a seat that 99% of people can fit in with comfort??? Are you actually listening and learning or just carping that some can't fit a standard quart into your pint sized pot? If I were to say, I am type 2 diabetic, my system does not deal with digestion and management of fats and energy as it should and even with eating on the basis of a strict nutritional programme, it still doesn't work and I still gain a little weight each month. Accomplia was withdrawn a while back - which was a hell of a setback for me as it regulated my diabetes well and I was steadily losing weight. I fit into your seats: just... with a seat extension. I pay as everyone else does. I keep my elbows in and gravitate towards my other half's seat to avoid annoying anyone else. You want to penalise me: go on... there are plenty of EasyJet routes available - you'll just lose a potentially loyal customer. What are you going to do about parents with screaming kids (because of ear ache) penalise their injury? Over-boisterous Hen and Stag Party people annoying people with loud accounts of their exploits: penalise their exhilaration? Michael, to say you have lost the plot would be an understatement... so go ahead, try it... and while you do, remember Mrs Thatcher thought the Poll Tax was a 'neat' idea to generate more income and the injustice of it did for her government and ultimately for her! Sometimes the moving finger writers...; here you are writing your own unnecessary disaster yourself. Inequity is one of the strongest feelings that there is: mess with it at your peril!
By Moshe Even-Zahav, Thursday, April 23, 2009
It needs an expert to decide what law, if any, is being broken. I don't believe that screenscrapers are breaking any law - not even the law of copyright. My understanding is that copyright automatically applies to anything that a person creates and in that sense, a website is a creation and the site is copyright; nobody can copy and reproduce the site. But there is no copyright on information - which is what the data we are speaking of are. If I were to say that Ryanair fly from Stansted to Rome (I haven't checked so don't pick me up if I'm wrong!) then I am not breaking Ryanair's copyright; If I say they are flying on Thursdays I am not breaking their copyright; if I say they are charging &#pound;100 I am not breaking their copyright - and so on. The information they publish is in the public domain; it is not confidential of covered by the Official Secrets Act. It is available to all and can be used by all. Providing tour operators and others do not reproduce the Ryaair site then I can't see that they are breaking copyright law - or indeed any other law. Of course, Ryanair will try every tactic they can to stop others profiting from their activities - but I have yet to be convinced that anything that is presently being done by resellers is illegal. In passing, I would remark that it is ironic how it seems that Ryanair like to threaten others with legal action but themselves treat most legal threats against themselves with supreme disdain. But that's the way they are and they have every right to their business model.
By Ally Jones, Thursday, April 23, 2009
The US airlines charge the same for the second seat as they do for the originally booked seat, I see no reason why the European airlines would not use the same system as/when adopted here. It is a contentious issue, people do not like to be called obese and they don't like being charged extra for being so, but at the end of the day the over riding issue is safety - and not just that of the obese passenger but of everyone else on the plane. It has been labelled as a 'fat tax' but in reality it isn't, it's a common sense approach to a problem that airlines have had to deal with more and more frequently as we humans have raised the 'average' body weight. Southwest have used the seat test for over 20 years...an excellent article about the practice is here.. http://everything2.com/title/Southwest%2520Airlines%2527%2520policy%2520concerning%2520overweight%2520travelers The world's population is getting heavier and unfortunately we have got to bite the proverbial bullet and move with the times. Don't get me wrong, I am no fan of Ryanair but on this issue...as someone who studies air crashes as well as being an admin on a cruise discussion board...I have to go with the passenger safety aspect. No easy or 'comfortable' answer really.
By Steve Wade, Thursday, April 23, 2009
Ryanair article states... Charge for a second seat if passengers' waist touches both armrests simultaneously. That is what the US airlines have done for years, if you do not fit into one seat, you will be obliged to purchase the adjoining one. It is a safety issue too...if a seatbelt cannot go around you due to being overweight, then you are effectively an untethered mass in the event of an accident. Airlines do sometimes use seatbelt extensions but that doesn't make the journey of the person sat next to an overweight passenger comfortable, it makes the overweight passenger safer in the event of an accident. Overweight passengers plus overweight bags especially on smaller commuter planes have caused fatal accidents in the US before now. Unfortunately, like it or not, airlines will start adopting schemes like this in Europe...and if they do not use it under the banner of 'money spinning' they will use it quite legally under 'passenger safety'.
By Ally Jones, Thursday, April 23, 2009
Fair comment Steve. It is possible some of the commentators are impacted personally by the "fat tax". My question was badly formulated. Still, I have asked this question to our (WhichBudget's) visitors and some did come out and said "Mr O'Leary, if you care about the comfort of my fellow passengers, what about my comfort when I have paid double and still have to put up with the arm-rest up my spine?"
By Martino Matijevic, Thursday, April 23, 2009
Unless I missed something Ally, the key differance between Ryanairs proposal and United, is that with United, the larger passenger will get an additional seat - benefiting both the larger person and the person that would otherwise be sat next to them. Ryanairs proposal is just to charge the larger person more money - what does anybody get for this? Does the large person get an additional seat ? No - Does the passenger next to them get more room? No - Does Ryanair make more money for providing the same as they do today - Yes...
By Steve Wade, Thursday, April 23, 2009
This is what United are now doing... United Airlines has joined other airlines in charging passengers who are too large to fit comfortably into coach seats to purchase a ticket for the adjoining seat or upgrade to business class if flight attendants can't find two open seats for them. The airline adopted the policy in response to complaints last year from more than 700 passengers last year who said they did not have a comfortable flight because the person next to them infringed on their seat. Dealing with very overweight passengers is an ongoing challenge for airlines, particularly as seats get narrower and flights become fuller. For more information, visit www.united.com. The Americans have accepted that obese passengers will be charged extra for years, they may not like it but it's a fact of life for them.
By Ally Jones, Thursday, April 23, 2009
This is what United are now doing... United Airlines has joined other airlines in charging passengers who are too large to fit comfortably into coach seats to purchase a ticket for the adjoining seat or upgrade to business class if flight attendants can't find two open seats for them. The airline adopted the policy in response to complaints last year from more than 700 passengers who said they did not have a comfortable flight because the person next to them infringed on their seat. Dealing with very overweight passengers is an ongoing challenge for airlines, particularly as seats get narrower and flights become fuller. For more information, visit www.united.com. The Americans have accepted that obese passengers will be charged extra for years, they may not like it but it's a fact of life for them.
By Hugo Kimber, Thursday, April 23, 2009
Martino Matijevic says he wants to know what fat people think about this, as "he hasnt read a single comment yet from them" - How do you know you havent Martino? Do "fat" people write in a particular way that allows you to distinguish they are fat just from reading the comments? Or perhaps you think that the comments should start with "My name is XXX and I am Fat"? Interesting to see the molepoll currently shows a majority of voters "in favour" Do you really think the additional money will be used to reduce fares?
By Steve Wade, Thursday, April 23, 2009
I thought I heard it all but one of the comments to the Ryanair news today comes from an alleged Carbon Emission specialist who claims that fat people in planes increase the carbon emissions and fuel consumption. So it is a natural consequence then that we tax the offenders, not that we find proper ways to reduce the carbon emissions! Let's tax the fat so they feel very responsible for earth pollution and global warming. What non sense!
By Seb Robin, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
I thought I heard it all but one of the comments to the Ryanair news today comes from an alleged Carbon Emission specialist who claims that fat people in planes increase the carbon emissions and fuel consumption. So it is a natural consequence then that we tax the offenders, not that we find proper ways to reduce the carbon emissions! Let's tax the fat so they feel very responsible for earth pollution and global warming. What nonsense!
By Hugo Kimber, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
I know it is a delicate question, as not many will publically admit to being overweight (or obese), but I would really like to know what do "fat" people think about this tax. I haven't read a single comment yet from them.
By Martino Matijevic, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The seats on Ryanair are already so small and uncomfortable that you only need to be a few pounds overweight to start being fined. Being too fat is not funny but neither are Ryanair's attempts to hide the fact that they are not much cheaper and a lot more inconvenient than proper airlines. M O Leary should get back to basics
By Patrick Murray, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
This is typical publicity required by a desperate Company. Long may the majority of people continue to boycott this joke of an airline, who treats its passengers with total contempt, and who claims to have the lowest fares. In fact with all these "hidden" extras, they are usually more expensive than even BA. So go on Ryanair, add more, and continue to mug the public
By Alan Wilman, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Ryanair is already the largest low fare airline company in Europe. They don't need publicity. What they need is humility. They are abusing their position and their actions are nothing but shocking. I understand that anyone is entitled to its own opinion but I cannot understand anyone that welcomes the move of charging people because they're heavier than others. This is indecent, ridiculous, disrespectful, and infuriating. I am curious to hear from those people who think it is fair to charge people for their extra weight what they'll say when the next Ryanair tax affects them directly. And by the way, I am not over-weight but I think I have got some decency. Ryanair and their supporters don't seem to have any obviously
By Seb Robin, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
It's taken me years to cultivate the body I have now and to be taxed for being vertically challenged (I should be 8'11" for my weight) is very unfair. Go on Ryanair..why not offer a discount for us biggies and charge for those that don't use the entire width of the seat therefore wasting possible revenue earning space.
By Steven Wolfson, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Ryanair are masters of free publicity at anyone's expense. (And here I am writing a comment when I should be working.) Well done Ryanair! But who will be the next victim? What about a bald tax, or even better a snore tax? Hopefully not as it would cost me a fortune to fly. Mark Walker visithuelva.com
By Mark Walker, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
why should ryanair be allowed to do this?? it is unfair to larger people, and they are only doing this to gain extra money. i personally think that it is discusting that they are allowed to charge people more money. some people may have a valid reason to why they are overweight. it would just embarase people and spoil their holiday.
By Laura Tickle, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
This is all tounge in cheek and some people believe it. Remarkable.
By jmh1904 Hutton, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The problem that I see with any of the 4 suggested schemes is how/when will they collect the additional money - given that they have announced the scrapping of check in desks. The first FR staff pax see will be at the boarding gate - usually only 2 of those, so either MOL will have to employ more staff to man the "checks" (empty seat like on rollacoaster rides), tape measure to check waist, scales to judge if over the 20st - checks to see if "men" between 15 and 20 stone are actually men, or just larger women trying to avoid the fee, God help them if they go for the BMI route - just imagine FR staff trying to work that one out!! Oh, and I am totally against the tax - another daft publicity stunt that will get loads of free publicity for Ryanair
By Steve Wade, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Should Oleary and his staff be asked to resign after this latest snafu. Can an airline really afford to have a ceo and marketing executive that are as hostile and abusive towards certain sections of society. Have these industry leaders really gone too far this time. Judging by the respondents here, perhaps his position is not as tenable as he maybe thinks?
By Nicholas Boekdrukker, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Excluding passengers, is this not a form of excluding a part of the community, in other words discrimination. Well oke bigger people take more space, and might be a burden for other passengers. Do the bigger people get bigger seats aswel then??? as they get charged more? (guess not!!) Ridiculous, will avoid traveling with ryan air now. What is next..... Charge more for people who wair inappropriate perfum,cloths,people with large feet,long people...... the beauty of people is that we are all different, are we really going to give penalties to people who are different. Is it really necessesary that we are all the same??? I hope not..
By Miranda West, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
I think that this is the most ridiculous story I have ever heard in my life! What a way to make larger people feel even worse than they do already. Who ever makes these stupid rules up has got to be teh most inconsiderate person around. What is it? They are not making enough money on flights that they have to include extra supplements to their customers.
By Charlotte Bashford, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
As one who fits in an economy seat like a cork in a bottle I have three comments. a. surely Ryanair would give a discount to a 130lb adult? b. how come male and female are not treated equally in the C21 and c. all this pales beside the recent suggestions from two American CEOs that agents should pay the airline for the privilege of selling the airline's tickets. Airlines may be older but they are not wiser....
By Jeff Barlow, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The problem that I see with any of the 4 suggested schemes is how/when will they collect the additional money - given that they have announced the scrapping of check in desks. The first FR staff pax see will be at the boarding gate - usually only 2 of those, so either MOL will have to employ more staff to man the "checks" (empty seat like on rollacoaster rides), tape measure to check waist, scales to judge if over the 20st - checks to see if "men" between 15 and 20 stone are actually men, or just larger women trying to avoid the fee, God help them if they go for the BMI route - just imagine FR staff trying to work that one out!! Oh, and I am totally against the tax - another daft publicity stunt that will get loads of free publicity for Ryanair
By Steve Wade, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Treating fat people differently is not a new concept and one which I suspect zeitgeist-shift will make more acceptable as time goes by. It has been widely reported that very fat people do, on the whole, cost the state more than the rest of the population. The NHS, for example, has spent a fortune on reinforced ambulances, latrines, beds etc, supersize morgues and of course overweight people are more at risk of illnesses such as heart disease and therefore cost more to look after. The front page of yesterday's Sun newspaper centred on research which suggests fat people have a far greater carbon footprint because they consume more food (20% of global emissions come from food production) and tend to drive more. In Canada the law says that it is the responsibility of the airlines to provide a second seat free of charge to people who are unable to fit in one seat. Is this right? I guess it comes down to whether we consider being seriously overweight a disability or the byproduct of an unhealthy lifestyle. The concept of being 'fattist' doesn't sit well with me but in almost all cases it isn't discriminating on the basis of something uncontrollable like colour, religion or class. Smokers choose to smoke and the majority of seriously overweight people have chosen not to look after themselves. We talk about the evil that is passive smoking, if the ever-growing population of seriously overweight people is consuming more, creating more carbon, and siphoning off a disproportionate amount of our joint resources should they face the choice of getting in better shape or additional taxes? Are they doing something equivalent to passive smoking?
By Rupert Murray, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Ryanair claim being the Europe's largest low fares carrier with 67m passengers across over 830 routes. They built their success on being cheap but there's no excuse to delivering poor service. Why is it that other airline companies do not see here an opportunity to beat Ryanair at their own game? Can they not see any possibility to attract these 67m passengers, give them as cheap a fare and treat them decently? Is this industry completely rotten?
By Seb Robin, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
O'leary needs to reexamine his staff, his morals and his ethics. I will not ever be in danger of paying such a tax, but I find this latest marketing gimmik of his to be awful. where will he try to save money next, maybe less fuel on board, maybe less rivets on the fuselage? if ryanair find themselves unable to maintain a competitive business model, without resorting to offensive gimmicks, perhaps they should just close up shop, and try something else!
By Nicholas Boekdrukker, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
I think this is the most ridiculous PR stunt I have ever heard of. I believe in freedom of press and all that stuff, but there is something called responsibility of the press too... or is TravelMole reducing itself to the likes of the SUN? Am seriously tempted to just unsubscribe to TravelMole bulletins... Do not need junk on my desktop!
By Raj Gyawali, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
I don't really see a problem with this. As others have said some US airlines are already doing this. They started with revenue management first and it's normal now for all airlines too. I'm sure this is going to catch on. Time for overweight people to loose weight if they want to fly cheap I guess.
By Ralph Melis, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Would it not be better to enforce a requirement to purchase a larger seat? That way you satisfy the requirement for the rather unfortunately coined but apt 'excess' baggage' and the person/s next to the larger customer can still sit comfotably. Of course it would have to offset losing some seating, but ultimately as obesity becomes the norm larger seats will have to be put in anyway...
By Owen Bevan, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Aer lingus insisted of one of our Fat Passengers a sprightly 28 stone that he should have to purchase 2 seats on the Bristol Dublin flight which reluctantly he did. Dai Rees got his two seats one in Row 17 and one in row 20 on either side on the isle !!! Yes this is a true story so good luck Ryan Air !!
By Mr A. Howells, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
I can't believe that this sort of story can actually get covered in the first place! I am utterly disgusted by this article! Ryanair are a scuzzy airline and everyone knows you get what you pay for! I think that this poll was a disgrace in the first place and should have been banned! RYANAIR YOU STINK!
By mark pullen, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Would it not be better to make available a selection of larger seats sold at a higher price? This would make it both more comfortable for the traveller and less upsetting / humiliating / offensive for them. Many larger people buy business class seats on full service carriers for that reason.
By Jennie Short, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
I cannot believe I actually read this piece of news today. It is shocking that this company continues to act in a such an absurd manner. A Fat Tax? Seriously? How much more stupid can Ryanair and their CEO be? This man is showing the most unimaginable comtempt for the people who have made and continue to make a wealthy man indeed. Ridiculous.
By Seb Robin, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
In my opinion, the airplanes should have special seats for large passengers or obese passengers (of course at no extra cost) instead of offend them.
By Maria Isabel G., Wednesday, April 22, 2009
While in principle I agree with this, I'm less than 9 stone but if I go 2kg over my baggage allowance I'd get charged a small fortune, yet someone double my weight can fly with normal baggage allowance and get no charge despite the combined weight of luggage/body kilos being greater than my luggage/body kilos. However, there are diabetics, hypothyroid sufferers, Lymphoedema and Lipodema patients among others who find it harder to control their weight than normal people and it would be discrimnatory against these people...so 15kg for a female is not actually that excessive, particularly for older passengers where weight gain is an inevitable part of life. 15kg for a 20 year old however is excessive. Age, height and other factors would need to come into it...and then the staff employed to monitor it, would cancel out Mr O'Leary's savings he makes on taking out check-in counters. But personally I'm all for it if he can work out a fair way to introduce it.
By Sarah-Louise Robinson, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
It could very easily be described as the abuse of Marketing over selling and profits. Treating passengers like meat luggage and charging per kilo will never built trust...
By Panayiotis Georgiou, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The practice of charging extra for obese passengers in the US is nothing new, United only announced this week that they are to introduce such charges and on the TV documentary series Airline USA last year, Southwest was shown frequently testing passengers who were obese with their ability to sit comfortably in a seat AND do the seatbelt up...those who failed this test were obliged to buy the next seat and then use seatbelts from both seats to secure themselves safely. As much as I do not like anyone being singled out, I can understand the reasoning for charging the obese extra. Ryanair will make waves over this, I am sure, but I think other airlines will follow behind at some point in the future. It does have to be said that I kinda liked the loo roll with O'Leary's face on it as a bit of fun ;)
By Ally Jones, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
O'leary needs to reexamine his staff, his morals and his ethics. I will not ever be in danger of paying such a tax, but I find this latest marketing gimmik of his to be awful. where will he try to save money next, maybe less fuel on board, maybe less rivets on the fuselage? if ryanair find themselves unable to maintain a competitive business model, without resorting to offensive gimmicks, perhaps they should just close up shop, and try something else!
By Nicholas Boekdrukker, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
What will they think of next? - and I am certainly not going to suggest anything here for fear of it being used as just another publicity stunt. I wonder what the legalities are of charging for excess body mass? But a great way to collect email addresses, all for 1000â¬uros
By Penny Bateman, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Ryanair's latest PR stunt is highly offensive, and deliberately so, as it creates maximum publicity. It's disappointing that Stephen Mills supports such a crass and ill-thought proposal.
By Antony Bradley, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
..any discounts for anorexia passengers ?
By Walter Goffin, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
If Ryan Air introduce a "tax" on obese passengers, what about a discount for anorexics?
By John Barrington-Carver, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
They talk about invading fellow fliers but they do not rebate the other customer do they for their space? It is as always interesting what "stats" the marketing people consider overwhelming if it is in their favour to see itthat way> "With passengers voting overwhelmingly for a '˜fat tax'" is really only 29% of those that chose to vote.
By somchit srimoon, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Why do the media even bother to print the rubbish that emulate from this company?
By kent milne, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
We pay by the kilo for excess baggage, so why shouldn't people be made to pay for the other kind of 'excess baggage'. The fee should be based on a combined baggage & personal weight and there should be a flat fee per kilo over that. If larger people don't want to pay as much, then either lose some weight or take less luggage. That way it's fair for everyone.
By Stephen Mills, Wednesday, April 22, 2009