Samoan airline defends ‘pay-as-you-weigh’ move

A SAMOAN airline has defended charging passengers by their weight rather than for a seat.

Samoa Air, which opened in 2012, asks travellers their bodyweight when they book then charges them per kilo at a rate which varies with the length of the flight. Customers are also weighed at the check-in counter.

“The industry has this concept that all people throughout the world are the same size,” Samoa Air chief Chris Langton said yesterday. “Aeroplanes always run on weight, irrespective of seats.”

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“There is no doubt in my mind that this is the concept of the future. This is the fairest way of you travelling with your family, or yourself.”

Though the airline instituted the plan last November, it came to attention last week when the carrier began international flights to neighbouring American Samoa just as a report by a Norwegian economist suggesting that airlines should charge obese passengers more.

The Pacific Islands contain some of the world’s most prevalent countries for obesity, many ranking in the top ten, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Samoa is ranked number four, with 59.6 per cent of the population considered obese, said the latest WHO report, dated 2008.