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Ryanair Fat Tax

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

Believe it or not, but now the beach Holiday guides favourite airline to hate, Ryanair is now considering how to charge extra for “Very Large Passengers” This comes after more than 30,000 passengers voted in favour of charging excess weight fees for very large passengers.

“Over 100,000 passengers logged on to ryanair.com to take part in our competition and almost one in three (over 30,000) think that very large passengers should be asked to pay a fat tax.” this is according to Stephen McNamara of Ryanair.

Other charges voted for on the on-line poll include:

• 29% – Excess fees for very overweight passengers
• 25% – €1 for toilet paper – with O’Leary’s face on it
• 24% – €3 to smoke in a converted toilet cubicle
• 14% – Annual subscription to access Ryanair.com
• 8% – €2 “corkage” fee for passengers who bring their own food onboard.

Ryanair is now considering how to implement such a charge and is now asking it’s passengers to vote, on which format the charge should take:

• Charge per kg over 130kg/20 stone (male) and 100kg/15 stone (females)
• Charge per inch for every waist inch over 45 inch (male) and 40 inch (female)
• Charge for every point in excess of 40 points on the Body Mass Index (+30 points is obese)
• Charge for a second seat if passengers’ waist touches both armrests simultaneously.

Again according to Stephen McNamara of Ryanair:

“The above four points seem to us to be the simplest, fairest and administratively easiest to apply.

“In all cases we have set limits at very high levels so that a ‘fat tax’ will only apply to those really large passengers who invade’ the space of the passengers sitting beside them.

“These charges, if introduced, might also act as an incentive to some of our very large passengers to lose a little weight and hopefully feel a little lighter and healthier.

“The revenues from any such fat tax will be used to lower the airfares for all Ryanair passengers yet further. Passengers can vote for their preference on www.ryanair.com until April 27.”

So, do you think Ryanair is seriously considering charging extra for larger customers, or is this is all another publicity stunt?

Tags: Cheap Airlines, Ryanair
Posted in Europe, Flights | Comments Off