Airline Fat Tax

I take two or three holidays a year, usually involving air travel.

We have the packing down to a fine art so we rarely ever take a large case for the hold, 10kg of hand luggage is absolutely fine for us. As any air passenger knows, you are charged a premium when it comes to weight.

Weight on planes is an incredibly important factor; it affects balance, fuel load, fuel efficiency, not to mention the emissions and carbon footprints. The airlines also take it seriously as an element for the business; it can earn them a small fortune. How many times do you see people turning up at the airport getting their case weighed and hit with an excess baggage charge…..the charges for surf/snowboards, golf clubs etc can be almost as much as the initial ‘cheap’ flight. Not too long ago we sat watching someone bringing a newly acquired guitar onto the plane, it cost him 3 times as much to get it on the plane home than what it had actually cost him!

Anyway I’m digressing. I’m over 6 foot and weigh over 13 stone, my better half is 5’8” and she weighs 10 stone. It’s kind of a long standing joke between us but there isn’t an occasion where someone weighs as much as both of us put together…..but they’ve only paid for one seat. We could share a seat and wouldn’t be any bigger than said individual.

So with that in mind, let’s talk about this ‘fat tax’ concept which the airlines are murmuring about quietly putting it out there. The issue is they over-spill into the next persons seat or the aisle and they are contributing 100% more weight per person than others; so should they be hit with an excess baggage type charge…or a fat tax as the airline term it?

I honestly see a legitimate point to be discussed when the airlines treat any extra kg’s as a way to make money. The weight factor also raises the issue that with a plane full of skinny people the journey would be considerably more fuel efficient and therefore produce less co2 emissions.

For sure in this day and age where millennials, snowflakes and the woke mentality will be up in arms that somebody somewhere will have had their rights/dignity/feelings damaged…but never mind. The very generation seem to be also focussed on ‘flight shaming’ (?!) it’s becoming another new trend for them to latch on to. Perhaps the millennials will eventually see they cannot defend the rights of the large units whilst at the same time jumping on the carbon footprint of the air industry….the two principles are conflicted.

No doubt many large people will say the flight is a particularly uncomfortable and perhaps even embarrassing for them as an experience too.

Maybe we will soon be sold airline seats based on £1 per kilo. I sense the travel industry will exploit the obesity epidemic if they can turn it into further income.