Ryanair's Staff Loses Weight to Save Money

Recently, TravelersToday covered a story in which American Airlines created a new model of food and beverage carts that were 12 pounds lighter than their older counterparts. The airline hoped that lightening the planes load would increase the aircraft's mileage and, therefore, save the company money on gas.

Last month, Ryanair thought of a similar solution. Instead of lightening the plane's equipment, however, they attempted to lighten their employees -- and NOT with massive lay-offs.

MSN.com is reporting that this isn't the first time the airline has made weight an issue. According to the article, "The airline has already endeared itself to the public with such hot topics as whether or not overweight passengers need to pay more." They've also considered every cost-saving measure conceivable, such as "whether it can ask its passengers to stand during flights in order to cram more on board and actually charging people £60 to print your boarding pass. Oh, and sorry, lest we forget... charging people to use the loo by installing a coin-operated mechanism."

In their latest attempt to be financially frugal, the company has admitted to encouraging the flight staff to tighten their belts, literally, and keep a trip figure. "We... encourage staff to watch their weight - with the motivation of appearing in the annual Ryanair calendar," said Stephen McNamara, a Ryanair spokesperson.

The MSN site points out that the calendar might work as an incentive for women, but since the product doesn't feature any male employees (and we wonder why not!), does this mean that the men in the company don't feel any pressure to drop pounds? There are a few more questions we have, as well. Namely, is this objectification legal in a workplace? If the women agree to it without pressure, does that make it ok?

To be fair, this isn't the only step that Ryanair has taken to save money. By printing the menu in their in-flight magazine instead of as a separate entity, the company has saved nearly £400,000.