Should airlines charge passengers by weight?

Samoa Air becomes the first to weigh travelers and their luggage

Obese passenger
(Image credit: Tim Boyle/Getty Images)

Samoa Air has become the first airline to charge passengers according to how much they weigh. The company carries travelers on hops between Pacific islands that have some of the highest obesity rates in the world. Instead of charging for each seat, Samoa Air has started weighing passengers along with their luggage, and charging them a fee reflecting the total, depending on the length of the flight. Fees range from about $1 to $4 per kilo (2.2 pounds), meaning passengers pay a little under $50 to $200 per 100 lbs. "This is the fairest way of traveling," Samoa Air CEO Chris Langton says. "There are no extra fees in terms of excess baggage or anything — it is just a kilo is a kilo is a kilo."

It's hard to argue with Samoa Air's math. Its fleet is mostly made up of small, 12-seater planes, so passengers and baggage account for "a much larger proportion of total takeoff weight than bigger airplanes," says Jamie Condliffe at Gizmodo. "That, and the fact that Samoa has a serious obesity problem" make the system a potential game-changer for Samoa Air. "The real question, though, is whether this may set a precedent that other airlines latch onto." If it does, "time to diet."

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.