| Passenger weights checked out at
Ryanair’s check-ins  PASSENGERS
approaching Ryanair check-in desks last week were being asked to step
on weighing scales.
Not content to weigh people’s baggage Ryanair was weighing its passengers.
It was easy then to believe a notice carried on some websites which said
Ryanair was about to begin charging passengers according to their weight.
It would not be the first airline to do so.
Southwest Airlines, an American carrier which inspired Ryanair’s
low-cost business model, introduced a levy for its more corpulent passengers
back in 2002. The airline asked its check-in staff to make a judgment
on sight and then charge heavier passengers for two seats instead of one.
The scene at Dublin Airport last week was altogether more scientific in
that the process involved scales.
“This has given us food for thought,” said Michael O’Leary,
the Ryanair chief executive, clearly suggesting that in future passengers
may be charged by the kilo.
He was, it transpired, being flippant. Ryanair it seems really has no
plans to charge people according to their weight. “We routinely
conduct a survey of the average weight of passengers,” Mr O’Leary
said.
“It’s because we do free seating. Other airlines can disperse
passengers around the aircraft but we can’t.”
Ryanair loads all bags into the front of the aircraft. Where the plane
is not full it may sometimes confine passengers to the back of the plane
to distribute weight which is why sometimes a number of rows of seats
on a Ryanair plane are blocked off.
The airline also has to calculate how much fuel is carried on each flight
a calculation based on the average weight of passengers.
But average weights change which is another reason for the exercise.
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