Samoa Air: Pay Only For What You Weigh
April 3, 2013Samoa Air, a small airline serving the Samoan islands, has introduced a travel industry first: You pay what you weigh. That’s right. Your weight determines the price of your airfare!
It works like this. Passengers are required to log in their personal weight and the weight of their luggage when booking a flight and are charged per pound depending on the length of their flight. Once the passenger arrives at the airport, they are weighed again to ensure accuracy.
“We at Samoa Air are keeping airfares fair, by charging our passengers only for what they weigh. You are the master of your Air'fair', you decide how much (or little) your ticket will cost. No more exorbitant excess baggage fees, or being charged for baggage you may not carry.” explains the Samoa Air website.
Chris Langton, CEO of Samoa Air, feels that this is the fairest way of traveling.
"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 in an interview with ABC radio. Langton reports that families with children find the new pricing system a welcomed surprise because traveling has become cheaper for them.
DID YOU KNOW? Samoans have rates of obesity that are among the highest in the world.
Norwegian economist and professor, Bharat Bhatta supports such a system and feels that other airlines should follow suit. His study, published in the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, reports that reducing the weight on an airplane by even just a little over two pounds will save $3,000 a year in fuel. He presented three possible models for airlines to consider:
- Passengers pay airfare according to their weight and that of their luggage.
- Passengers pay a fixed base rate that would include heavier passengers paying an extra charge.
- Passengers of an average weight would pay the same fare. If a passenger is above or below that set average weight, they would be charged extra or receive a discount.
Many feel that treating people like freight and traveling down the road of Samoa Air and/or any of Bhatta’s proposed models is just another form of discrimination. And that discrimination would not only affect the obese, it would affect those who are taller and women who are pregnant as well as many others.
However, Samoa Air executives feel that they have started an industry trend that is an acceptable concept of the future.
Samoa Air currently charges up to $1.25 per pound for domestic flights and approximately $2.27 a pound for it’s only international flight.