Ethical issues regarding the charging of overweight people on airplanes. The "pay-by-weight" policy

Essai , 2018 , 9 Pages , Note: 1

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Debates over ethical issues do not seem to end anytime soon. Over the past half century, ethical issues have been emerging in the global society, especially the industrialized world. For instance, the debate over the decriminalization of abortion and euthanasia has lingered around for quite too long without a consensus decision. On the other hand, the issue of gay marriages that emerge in 1970s remained surrounded by immense controversy until a few months ago when the US Supreme Court brought the issue to rest through upholding gay rights.

Surprisingly, the termination of gay marriages debate did not seem to change the course of ethical phenomena among the global society. Recently, a new ethical issue emerged: the pay-as-you-weigh policy. This policy requires obese people to pay extra charge in the airlines. In retrospect, obesity is considered as an ethical issue and it has emerged to be a controversial subject. It is an ethical issue because it causes adverse consequences to obese individuals, as well as, the society.

However, these factors do not seem to be part of the justification for the introduction of pay-as-you-weigh pricing in the aviation industry. Instead, the core argument by airline administrators and economists is that flying obese people increases fuel costs; thus, the so-called "fat-taxes" will address the issue of financial costs. Contrary to this perspective held within the aviation industry, environmentalists view obesity as an issue that has environmental cost.

The increased fuel consumption by airplanes is believed to exacerbate climate change, primarily global warming due to increased greenhouse gas emissions. From these perspectives, it is apparent that obesity is a controversial issue. Therefore, this research will provide a comprehensive overview of the ethical issue of charging overweight people on airlines.

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Overview of the `Pay-by-Weight' on Airlines

Ordinarily, airlines have been charging passengers as per seats rather than their body

weight. However, this approach began experiencing opposition in the past decade. It is im-

perative that the airline industry is entangled in the globalization paradox (Thomas, 2011).

The idea of charging passengers based on their weight emerged after economists in the avia-

tion industry discovered a significant increase in fuel cost that was attributable to flying obese

people.

In a nutshell, the issue of introducing `pay-by-weight' system in the aviation industry

has been sparked by the arguments of just three experts: Tony Webber, Bharat P. Bhatta and

Peter Singer. It is apparent that opinions of these experts have influenced the way in which

airlines view pricing of flights.

It all began with Tony Webber, who investigated changes in average body weight of

people flying with Qantas, the Australian airline. Webber, who worked with the airline as the

chief economist identified average weight increase since 2000 and calculated the correlated

fuel cost. In his findings, he noticed that the average weight of adults increased by two kilo-

grams; thus, increasing fuel cost. He interpreted these changes to be the reason for the air-

line's decreasing profits. Webber hypothesized the fuel cost of flying Airbus A380 from Syd-

ney to London in which he estimated the extra fuel cost at $472. Flying the airline in this

route in both directions for a year meant incurring an additional fuel cost of $1 million. This

additional cost accounts for 13% of Qantas profit. Following his investigations, Webber sug-

gested that airlines should set a standard passenger weight to counter the increasing fuel cost.

For instance, he gave an empirical weight of 75 kilograms as the standard weight. This im-

plies that a passenger weighing 100 kilograms will be considered to be overweight by 25 kil-

ograms, and this attracts a surcharge of $29 to fly from Sydney to London. On the other hand,

a passenger with 50 kilograms body weight would be discounted the same amount. The se-

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cond suggestion for Webber was to set a standard weight that will have passengers weighed

on scales with their luggage, and then charged collectively (Singer, 2012).

This proposal gained immense popularity after Peter Singer, an ethicist supported

Webber's idea by highlighting the reasons for introducing a `pay-by-weight' system on air-

lines. Singer discussed the costs imposed to others by obese people, in order to justify as an

ethical issue. In support of Webber's argument, Singer reaffirmed that people are getting fat-

ter all over the world with developed countries carrying the highest burden of obesity. He

sarcastically refers to the manner of movement associated to fat people as waddling rather

than walking (Singer, 2012).

According to Singer, obesity has adverse consequences to the society, as well as the

environment. Therefore, he agrees that surcharging passengers for extra weight will be a fair

deal because it will reflect and individual's true cost of flight. In turn, the `pay-by-weight'

system will relieve fellow passengers from incurring extra costs on obese people. As such,

Singer downplays the ethics that the new system is a discriminatory act. Ideally, Singer advo-

cates for the introduction of public policies that discourage people from gaining weight, in

order to reduce the extra cost imposed on others in the society. This is why he supports the

`pay-by-weight' system in the aviation industry.

Scientific inquiry has also exacerbated the debate on `pay-by-weight' pricing policies

on airlines. In November 2012, Bharat Bhatta, a Norway based economist published an arti-

cle on the fat-taxes that aroused academic inquiry. Bhatta's approach was to solve the chal-

lenges involved in introducing the `pay-by-weight' system in the aviation industry

(Alemanno, 2013). In his article, he claimed that airlines do not exercise fairness in charging

passengers under the current fare policy. This is so because all passengers pay an `average

price' regardless of their body weight. In this system, costs are distributed among passengers.

This implies that passengers who have low weight such as 40 kilograms pay extra cost to

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compensate the extra weight of obese passengers. In order to address this indifference in cost

distribution, Bhatta suggested that the adoption of the current fare policy on airlines will en-

sure that passengers pay based on their baggage. He suggested three principal approaches

through which airlines can implement the new fare model. The first method is the adoption of

price per kilogram charging that is considered as a straightforward approach. The second ap-

proach is surcharging heavier passengers and discounting the lighter ones, whereas the third

method is setting fares in three bands of passengers as light, normal and heavy (Bhatta,

2013).

Case Scenario

Following these controversial perspectives, it seems some airlines are pleased by the

idea of introducing the `pay-by-weight' pricing policy. This aspect has been evidenced by the

approach by Samoa Air. On April 1, 2013, Samoa Air announced what many people believed

to be an April-pool joke. Contrary to the expectations of many, Samoa Air switched to the

`pay-by-weight' system. As such, it has become the first airline to adopt the new fare system

in the world. Under the new fare system, the fare charged correlates with the passengers'

weight and luggage, and this is considered as a fair deal (Davies, 2013).

According to critical analysis by aviation experts, this new system might work due to

a number of reasons, but it appears unpractical for large airlines. One of the key reasons why

`pay-by-weight' system works with Samoa Air is that the airline operates short flight air-

crafts. These aircrafts carry a dozen passengers; thus, logistical problems are not encountered

in weighing each person. The second reason why the system might work with Samoa Air is

the raising trends of obesity in the American Samoa region. It is reported that obesity has

become an immense problem because two-thirds of the U.S. population is overweight or

obese. Therefore, obesity has already become an ethical problem in the region. This implies

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that any public policy that seems to address the problems is reasonable. In this case, light-

weight passengers are shielded from the adverse effects of obesity crisis in the region.

It is apparent that the adoption of the `pay-by-weight' system by Samoa Air has creat-

ed a tempting idea for other airlines. Some airlines are considering switching to the new fare

system as one of the ways of recouping the extra fuel cost that seem to slim the profit mar-

gins. For instance, the `customers of size' policy adopted by Southwest Airlines appears to be

a replica of the `pay-by-weight' policy. Under the `customers of size' policy, the extra size of

a passenger is determined by the armrests. Those who cannot fit between the armrests are

considered to exceed the size of a conventional seat. As such, they are required to purchase

another seat, in order to occupy a space of two seats (Davies, 2013).

Despite these approaches towards the adoption of the `pay-by-weight' system, some

airlines have expressed objection to it. For instance, EasyJet and Ryanair have already dis-

carded the new idea (Davies, 2013). It is also likely that large carriers will not accept the new

system because it is associated to an array of problems including legal and logistic issues.

Policies Related to `Pay-by-Weight' Policy

Currently, there are no clearly communicated public policies related to obese passen-

gers. In the United States, policies related to seats for obese people are set by airlines, but

they are not protected by the constitutional law. This lack of a legal guideline on setting air-

line fares appears to be the most stabling block to the new approach of `pay-by-weight' sys-

tem. In contrast, rights of obese people are protected by most constitutions under the disabil-

ity legislations. For instance, the Canadian judicial system prohibits discrimination based on

body weight. In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that imposing extra fares on passengers who

are differently-abled is a form of discrimination. As such, obese people are considered to be

among the differently-abled people. In its landmark ruling on extra fares, the court upheld the

• Université: Egerton University
• Note: 1
• Auteur: Patrick Kimuyu (Auteur)
• Année de publication: 2018
• Pages: 9
• N° de catalogue: V387501
• ISBN (ebook): 9783668615793
• ISBN (Livre): 9783668615809
• Langue: anglais
• mots-clé: ethical, pay-by-weight policy, fat airline passengers