Wednesday, 10 April 2013

Air travellers support fat tax

Mumbai: The next time you decide taking a flight, you might have to watch your weight. If you won’t, your co-passenger will and might even have a problem with it.
The proposal to charge overweight air passengers more may not have gone down well with some, but a majority of respondents in a recent survey voiced their support to the idea.
Fifty-nine per cent of the respondents favoured the “fat tax”, a survey by global travel search portal Skyscanner revealed.
“An independent online poll of 1,000 adults revealed that the majority (59 per cent) of international travellers were in favour of ‘fat tax’, which would see airlines charging more for seats to overweight passengers,” the survey findings said.
The remaining felt it would be “unfair and discriminatory.”
The survey, carried out on March 26-28, follows a call by Bharat P. Bhatta, a Norwegian economist and associate professor with Sogn of­ Fjordane University College, who said the airlines should adopt the practise in other transport sectors and charge by space and weight.
‘Pay as you weigh’ airline pricing model could bring benefits to airlines in the form of cheaper fares and reduced carbon emissions, Bhatta explained.
“While the proposal to charge extra from overweight passengers is a sensitive issue for airlines who will not want to offend such passengers, it’s clear from our survey that many travellers think the introduction of such a tax would enable them to save money on airfare,” said Skyscanner’s market development manager for India, Kavitha Gnanamurthy.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130405/news-businesstech/article/air-travellers-support-fat-tax
 

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