Thread: Samoa Air boss defends charging passengers by weight

The head of Samoa Air has defended the airline's decision to start charging passengers according to their weight.

Chris Langton told Australia's ABC Radio that it was "the fairest way of travelling".

Rather than pay for a seat, passengers pay a fixed price per kilogram, which varies depending on the route length.

Samoa Air flies domestically and to American Samoa. It is thought the move could encourage other airlines to introduce similar policies.

"Airlines don't run on seats, they run on weight, and particularly the smaller the aircraft you are in the less variance you can accept in terms of the difference in weight between passengers," Mr Langton told ABC radio.

"Anyone who travels at times has felt they have been paying for half of the passenger next to them."

Under the new model, Mr Langton described how some families with children were now paying cheaper fares.

"There are no extra fees in terms of excess baggage or anything - it is just a kilo is a kilo is a kilo," he said.

Air Samoa's rates range from $1 (65p) to around $4.16 per kilogram. Passengers pay for the combined weight of themselves and their baggage.

Mr Langton also suggested that the move had helped promote health awareness in Samoa, which has one of the world's highest levels of obesity.

"People generally are becoming much more weight conscious. That's a health issue in some areas," he told ABC Radio.

Mr Langton said he believed that charging by weight was "the concept of the future."

"People generally are bigger, wider and taller than they were 50 years ago," he said. "The industry will start looking at this."

BBC News - Samoa Air boss defends charging passengers by weight

Would be more expensive to fly with an Icelandic airline. You weigh more nearer the north pole since the centrifugal force caused by the earth's rotation, tending to throw you out into space and counteracting your actual physical weight is almost zero.

At the equator the force is greatest at 4 times pi (3.14159) squared times the radius of the earth (6,400,000 metres) divided by the rotational period (86,400 seconds) squared gives 0.03 m/s^2

As a fraction of earth's G acceleration (9.81 m/s^2) this represents a saving of about 0.3% by flying with an equatorial airline such as Samoan Air.

Too scared to mention,that they are fat.Fatter than fat.

Hang on..... Most Samoans are fat cunts anyway arent they?

Originally Posted by Looper

Would be more expensive to fly with an Icelandic airline. You weigh more nearer the north pole since the centrifugal force caused by the earth's rotation, tending to throw you out into space and counteracting your actual physical weight is almost zero.

At the equator the force is greatest at 4 times pi (3.14159) squared times the radius of the earth (6,400,000 metres) divided by the rotational period (86,400 seconds) squared gives 0.03 m/s^2

As a fraction of earth's G acceleration (9.81 m/s^2) this represents a saving of about 0.3% by flying with an equatorial airline such as Samoan Air.

Ah, but the earth is fatter at the equator as it is not a perfect sphere and gravity is higher there than at the poles. That would counteract the savings?

Originally Posted by Gerbil

Hang on..... Most Samoans are fat cunts anyway arent they?

Lordy Me,your not supposed to say that.

Originally Posted by Gerbil

Originally Posted by Looper

Would be more expensive to fly with an Icelandic airline. You weigh more nearer the north pole since the centrifugal force caused by the earth's rotation, tending to throw you out into space and counteracting your actual physical weight is almost zero.

At the equator the force is greatest at 4 times pi (3.14159) squared times the radius of the earth (6,400,000 metres) divided by the rotational period (86,400 seconds) squared gives 0.03 m/s^2

As a fraction of earth's G acceleration (9.81 m/s^2) this represents a saving of about 0.3% by flying with an equatorial airline such as Samoan Air.

Ah, but the earth is fatter at the equator as it is not a perfect sphere and gravity is higher there than at the poles. That would counteract the savings?

Yes the earth is fatter at the equator. I don't think this would cause gravity to be greater at the equator though. At the pole you are slightly nearer to the earth's centre and therefore slightly nearer on average to each of the earth's atoms and so they can exert a slightly greater total gravitational force even though the mean direction of this force is a tiny bit more spread out at the pole due to the wider aspect of the slightly rotationally flattened globe.

I think the centrifugal effect even at only 0.3% would be much more significant.

What's the date on that article?

^ I was wondering that too.... but it's been picked up by a lot of news organizations, so I dont think its an AF.

Yeah, just saw it on the news this morning.

I understand it for small planes, but longer flights and/or international flights might be a little less marketable.

Interesting move.

Originally Posted by Gerbil

Hang on..... Most Samoans are fat cunts anyway arent they?

Too much taro....and supplemented by the introduced crap from Australia, NZ, and U.S.

Mutton chops and pigs.

Originally Posted by Necron99

Mutton chops and pigs.

....that too. Plus tinned corned beef.

Though, a minor percentage of Samoan lovelies are quite slim and attractive.....until their first child.

Now, Tongans. They're chubby cnuts. Disgusting.

I'll take Tahitians/Marquesans.

When are you gonna be weighed ? When you get to the airport I guess ?

So if you book 8 months in front, they will give you a refund/surcharge at check in ? it's a good incentive to Diet or take a load of laxative before your flight.

Oh well, at least you could beat all those amputees to immigration at arrivals

I imagine Coriolis force is responsible for the gentlemen's package leaning to the left, as well.

System could be the same as is for suitcases.Ticket price is for 80 kg's and if over that at check in an extra weight charge per kilo.

We, the none fat people, cant go over wieght with baggage, yet for some one who's body wieght is double ours, thats OK. I can see why they want to charge them extra and I agree.

I don't see what's so strange about charging people on air flights for the portion of fuel that they consume. People are charged for what they consume pretty much everywhere else. Large people eat more so their grocery bills at the check-out counter are higher. People who drive large cars pay more to fill their gas tanks. Nothing too astonishing about that, is there? Therefore, why should pay-by-the-kilo airlines be such a big deal? It should be done everywhere. It's fair and might also have the effect of discouraging obesity.

Originally Posted by wasabi

This man has his own gravitational pull.

Jules: You remember Antwan Rockamora, half black, half Samoan, used to call him Tony Rocky Horror?
Vincent: Yeah, maybe. Fat, right?
Jules: I wouldn't go so far as to call the brother fat, I mean he got a weight problem. What's the nigger gonna do? He's Samoan.

There was once a very nasty US Air ATR crash as the passengers were all assumed to weigh far less that they did. Now that airline takes the weight down and the flight engineer does the calculations.

If you took a big dump 1/2 way through the flight could you get pro rata back on the portion you deposed of and is it true that people some times get hit by frozen blocks of piss and shit who live in flight paths.

Many years ago, I was asked how much I weighed prior to a small-aircraft flight in the Carribean. Then they evenly distributed people forward and aft, port and starboard, depending on weight. They said a flight earlier that month had failed to clear the mountains due to weight issues. :/