Samoa Air Rolling Out "Pay As You Weigh" Fares 587
cylonlover writes "Thrifty Samoans looking to take a trip may want to shed a few pounds before booking a flight with Samoan Air after the airline announced the implementation of a 'pay as you weigh' system. Unlike some other airlines that have courted controversy by forcing some obese passengers to purchase two seats, Samoa's national carrier will charge passengers based on their weight."
They have a demo fare calculator for the curious.
Not too surprising (Score:5, Informative)
I have been to Samoa, and you see a lot of extremely obese people there, even by American standards, so this does not surprise me.
Re:Fairplay (Score:4, Informative)
What's interesting about their approach is that it seems to ignore baggage, which is something which people can easily do something about. Sure, the morbidly obese can and should lose weight, but this seems like an awful lot of unwarranted discrimination against people who are taller and just larger regardless of causation.
From the fare calculator:
Step 2. Enter your details, including your estimated weight(s) of passengers and baggage
Re:sounds good (Score:5, Informative)
Yes they are. "Step 2. Enter your details, including your estimated weight(s) of passengers and baggage"
Re:Not too surprising (Score:4, Informative)
Why is that? Is it their diet? Or is being big considered attractive in their culture?
They live on Spam fritters, Spam "Musubi", etc.
Ref: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1578329/Spam-at-heart-of-South-Pacific-obesity-crisis.html [telegraph.co.uk]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_Pacific [wikipedia.org]
Re:More person, more cost. Fine. (Score:5, Informative)
So I'm betting that 10 tones is far less than a 5% increase in overall weight. So the increase in costs divided among the passengers is going to get pretty small pretty quickly.
It seems like they're being penny-wise/pound foolish on this...
If Samoa Air were a normal international airline, you would be right. However, they are a regional airline with small prop planes, where individual passenger weight does make up a significant percentage of the total flying weight.
Re:larger sits? (Score:5, Informative)
It's then you idiot. You're too stupid to be a grammar nazi.
Re:More person, more cost. Fine. (Score:5, Informative)
"Passenger weight is fairly insignificant compared to the weight of the plane itself. There might be standard 50 tons of people/luggage on a jumbo (250 lbs combined * 400 ppl)."
no.
RTFA.... NINE seats on the BIG planes.
Samoa Air’s fleet of Britten Norman (BN2A) Islanders that carry nine passengers, and a four-seater Cessna 172 are likely to be particularly sensitive to the extra burden of such passengers.
empty weight is about the same as a full size sedan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britten-Norman_Trislander [wikipedia.org]
Empty weight: 5,843 lb (2,650 kg)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_172 [wikipedia.org]
Empty weight: 1,691 lb (767 kg)
compare to 2013 Volkswagen Jetta: curb weight - about 3100 lbs
http://autos.aol.com/cars-Volkswagen-Jetta-2013/specs/ [aol.com]
Re:More person, more cost. Fine. (Score:5, Informative)
I'd disagree that they are being penny wise and pound foolish.
This airline is a tiny airline (island hopper) operating local routes in small aircraft - they aren't flying huge behemoths like A380s or even the much more modest A320 series. Or even anything as "massive" as an ATR-42. They are flying light twins and singles (Britten Norman Islander and Cessna 172s). A Cessna 172 after filling the fuel tanks gives you about 600lbs useful load left over for passengers and their stuff. Add the pilot and you've probably got 400-450lbs left over. If you have a 300lb passenger it literally costs you a passenger seat extra. You could carry three 150lb passengers or one 300pounder and one 150 pounder.
Things aren't that much better in an Islander which is a light twin. A couple of obese passengers mean you have to carry fewer people.
Re:More person, more cost. Fine. (Score:4, Informative)
The problem with things like subways is that there's no room for competition. You're not going to have 15 separate companies digging their own tunnels through the city and offering well-distributed terminals to everybody. When there's a tightly shared central resource, especially when based on physical real estate, it makes sense that the government of the area address it.
Re:More person, more cost. Fine. (Score:4, Informative)
That must be why Eurostar terminals aren't in Paris, Brussels or London. The people are so closely packed there was no room to put a line in.