

Samoan airline says pay by weight plan "fairest" way to fly - jister
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/samoan-airline-says-pay-weight-plan-fairest-way-041947121--finance.html

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A1kmm
This was an April Fools joke (and presumably a dig at obesity in Samoa) that
refuses to die. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoa_Air> ceased operations in
2003.

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btilly
As much as I hate sitting next to a whale who is trying to occupy half of my
seat, according to <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737> a fairly typical
jet while empty is about 62,000 pounds, and can carry a maximum of 124 people
(in most configurations less). That's 500 pounds of plane per seat.

For the vast majority of people, your share of the empty weight of the plane
exceeds the weight of you and your luggage by a good margin.

~~~
prodigal_erik
When you add fuel, you have to add (exponentially!) more fuel to lift the fuel
you're adding. It's true that a 200 lb passenger doesn't cost twice as much as
a 100 lb passenger, but it's more than the 17% increase one might expect going
from 600 to 700 lb dry weight.

