Airline passengers should pay by their weight
A professor has suggested an airline pricing scheme where passengers pay by their weight.
Heavier passengers would pay more for their plane tickets and lighter ones less under plans put forward by Dr Bharat P Bhatta in this month’s Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management publication.
The professor from Sognog Fjordane University College in Norway said weight and space should be taken into account when airlines price their tickets, reports Sky News.
Dr Bhatta said: "Charging according to weight and space is a universally accepted principle, not only in transportation, but also in other services."
Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management editor Dr Ian Yeoman said: "For airlines, every extra kilogram means more expensive jet fuel must be burned, which leads to CO2 emissions and financial cost.
"As the airline industry is fraught with financial difficulties, marginally profitable and has seen exponential growth in the last decade, maybe they should be looking to introduce scales at the check-in."
Dr Bhatta says the fare could be generated with a fixed rate for kilograms per passenger so that a person weighing 60kg pays half the airfare of a 120kg person.
Or airlines could have a ‘base’ fare with an additional charge for heavier passengers to cover the extra costs, as well as a discount for lighter flyers.
A former Qantas group chief economist said in January that people who weigh more should pay more to fly on planes.
Writing for Business Day in Fairfax newspapers, Tony Webber, now managing director of Webber Quantitative Consulting and Associate Professor at the University of Sydney Business School, claims fuel burnt by planes depends on many things "but the most important is the weight of the aircraft. The more a plane weighs, the more fuel it must burn".
Webber said that while a weight surcharge may be a good idea in theory, it would not be easy to implement as passengers would have to be weighed at check-in, see previous story.
Diane
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