Should we tax fat fliers?

[Deleted User]

I found this article in The Daily Telegraph. Read it on their website:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/travel/charlesstarmersmith/november/2007/fatfliers.htm

It seems the link is too long.
The article is written by:

charlesstarmersmith/november2007

Enter this instead of the three dots on the link above.

Let's keep this our little secret; please don't give Michael O'Leary any new ideas. Joke aside, do you think this is a good idea? As a non-obese person myself, I can see the positive aspect of this issue, especially it you have tried to sit next to a fat person on a flight. However in America where 20% of the population are obese this idea may have a hard time catching on. Perhaps charging people according to their weight will be a good incentive to lose weight. Or maybe we should all pay according to our weight, obese or not?

GreyPilgrim

I'm probably shooting myself in the foot here (being a bit of a bloater myself), but I was interested when Giles Coren brought the point up on a program he did.

If your luggage is over the limit, you'll get hammered with excess baggage charges...yet an excessively skinny short person will use a hell of a lot less fuel than a pie-magnet like me, yet gets charged the same for his ticket....

[Deleted User]

I reckon in the near future we're all charged according to our total weight meaning that each individual including their luggage must go on a scale when checking in at an airport. That fact is, the heavier the weight, the bigger the fuel consumption and therefore the more co2 will be released into the atmosphere. I'm afraid drastic measures must be taken in able to save this planet. Not just flying but every other aspect in life that releases co2 and thereby cause global warming.

GlennTheBaker

Yes and thank heavens we have a government on whom we can rely to spend all the additional revenue these extra 'green' taxes generate on projects and schemes that will make a real impact in the fight against climate change :rolleyes:

[Deleted User]

Yes, the problem is earmarking monies raised through green taxes and make sure they actually benefit the environment rather than end up as a general tax income for the Government. I'm afraid politicians here will take serious action only, when they're actually wading through knee deep water in Parliament Square!

peterbaker

travellingbum wrote: »

I reckon ... fact is, the heavier the weight, the bigger the fuel consumption and therefore the more co2 will be released into the atmosphere. I'm afraid drastic measures must be taken in able to save this planet. Not just flying but every other aspect in life that releases co2 and thereby cause global warming.

Personally, when the cabin pressurisation starts dropping I worry more about the other gas released into the cabin from those obese passengers around me - they can't help themselves, nor us long suffering fellow passengers, as they are only equipped with sea-level standard sphincters :eek:... but perhaps all need not be lost ... I've an idea spurred by something I once read from the late great Spike Milligan, another far-sighted Irishman ... I reckon the obese could carbon-offset that little bit extra in the climbout by being seated in a separate cabin section where their particular cabin air was exhausted via engine afterburners :money: