Written by Rupert Kircz | Tuesday, 25 November 2008 | There are 6 comments
airlines say that fuel consumption has grown over the last 30 years
In a shock ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada, airlines that operate within the country will have to provide 2 airline seats for the price of 1 for obese individuals who can't fit in one seat. The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal launched by a group of Canadian airlines who challenged the decision of the Canadian Transportation Agency who argued that men and women who are disabled by obesity should have the right to fly comfortably like everybody else.
The airlines that launched the action namely Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz and WestJet will now have to comply and shoulder the extra cost that giving some obese individuals two seats will incur. The Supreme Court ruling would also mean that if obese people travel with a wheelchair or somebody to help them they will not be charged a higher fare for the extra seat or space required.
In fact many people argued that since the Canadian train companies had been operating this policy for some time they felt it was unfair that airlines were able to charge extra for obese people. The airline Air France was also recently sued by a passenger who said that he had been humiliated after being forced to buy an extra seat on arrival at the airport. With growing numbers of obese individuals all around the world the physical weight on board airplanes is now greater and airlines say that fuel consumption has grown over the last 30 years as a result.
There are those who say that people who carry more weight should pay more for their seats in the same way that those who travel with extra luggage are required to pay a surcharge. It can be very uncomfortable and unpleasant for travellers who have to sit next to very obese individuals who spill over their seats into your adjoining seat which further complicates the problem.
There are 6 comments on this article.
Fat Goose said:
Listen up, f yout ake up two seats you pay for two seats...
its simple- Canadians are right and fat people shouldn't travel anyway, its a bad export of our 1st world economies.
Are you going to sue cinemas, trains, buses, hoar houses, hospital beds, motorbikes, makers of G-strings, and pogo stick manufacturers?
Roxy said:
Don't you think that this problem has arrisen because the airlines, (all of them), have made the seats narrower?
sandra1 said:
I feel really bad for all that chubby people but instead of chang so many things for their comfort they should change their eating habits.
Nicholas said:
Sandra1, I think you are being unfair, it has been medically proven that not all people who gain weight are overeating. Some people suffer from the metabolic syndrome, and need some medical help.
gPoP said:
ok I don't think this is an export issue or a change of lifestyle issue, its more a question of whether or not people fit in airplane seats. If they do not fit in a seat, surely they should have to pay for another seat. Maybe like a smoking section they should have a "horizontally challenged" section...so all the larger people can sit together?
PM said:
In all fairness, despite how or why someone is obese, if that person takes up more than 1 chair, then yes - equal opportunity says that they should pay for an extra seat, otherwise what's stopping me (at 75kgs) taking up 2 seats and only paying for one? The range of human body types globally is too diverse to simply state that obese people should pay more because they weigh more. If that was the case then in all fairness and with EEO in mind, an average weight scale (based on the average weight of everyone in the world) should be applied and everyone who is under a certain weight pays less and everyone over pays more, how this would be applied is anyones guess, perhaps in kgs? $1- per kg over / under a median weight of the world's population? If you took the average weight of everyone in the world to be ~80kgs then on that basis I would pay $5- less to fly, while someone who weighs 100kgs would pay $20- extra to fly.
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