Higher flight ticket rates for obese people?

Airlines should charge obese passengers more, a Norwegian economist has suggested, arguing that "pay as you weigh" pricing would bring health, financial and environmental dividends.

Bharat Bhatta, an associate professor at Sogn og Fjordane University College, said that airlines should follow other transport sectors and charge by space and weight.

- To the degree that passengers lose weight and therefore reduce fares, the savings that result are net benefits to the passengers - Bhatta wrote this week in the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management.

"As a plane of a given make and model can accommodate more lightweight passengers, it may also reward airlines" and reduce the use of environmentally costly fuel.

Bhatta put together three models for what he called "pay as you weigh airline pricing."

The first would charge passengers according to how much they and their baggage weighed. It would set a rate for pounds (kg) per passenger so that someone weighing 130 pounds (59 kg) would pay half the fare of 260-pound (118-kg) person.

A second model would use a fixed base rate, with an extra charge for heavier passengers to cover the extra costs. Under this option, every passenger would have a different fare.

Bhatta's preferred option was the third, where the same fare would be charged if a passenger was of average weight. A discount or extra charge would be used if the passenger was above or below a certain limit.

That would lead to three kinds of fares - high, average and low, Bhatta said.

Some airlines are beginning to charge obese customers for extra seats, but Samoa Air appears to be the first to adopt a "pay as you weigh" pricing plan.

The airline's price-per-kilogram will vary depending on the flight, from as little as $1 per kilogram to as much as $4.16, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

Passengers now must type in their weight and the weight of their baggage into the online booking section of the airline's website.

The new policy is intended, in part, to raise awareness of Samoa's weight problem.

The Pacific island nation has one of the most obese populations in the world. According to a 2007 World Health Organization survey, more than 80 percent of Samoans age 15 and older are considered obese, making it the sixth fattest nation in the world.