Too fat to fly?
Photo: RNW
Overweight passengers could face an unwelcome surprise next time they turn up at the airport, as a leading European airline unveils plans to charge "oversize" flyers for an extra seat.
Air France-KLM announced today that from 1 April passengers who cannot squeeze comfortably into a single seat will have pay a hefty extra charge (75% of the full price of a second seat).
Monique Matze, a spokeswoman for the airline, said that the charge would only apply if the flight was full. She explained that the airline believes overweight passengers needed an extra seat for "safety reasons", in such cases the seatbelt from one seat has to be fastened into the socket of the next seat.
The move has been slammed as a form of discrimination by obesity groups, while France's minister for the family Nadine Morano slammed it as "shocking".
The Franco-Dutch airline is the first in Europe to introduce such extra charges, although some US airlines have had this system in place for several years. In 2007 Air France was forced to pay €8,000 in damages to a man weighing 160kg for the "humiliation" he suffered at the hands of their staff, who measured his stomach at a check-in desk in New Delhi airport before telling him he had to pay for two seats.
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by Larry Angione
23.01.2010
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