Samoa Air has taken the next step in the debate regarding overweight passengers and how they should be charged for travel by adding new extra-large seats for those who are too large to fit in normal sized seats, according to CNN.
"The new seat is like a two-person couch, created from two adjacent seats without an armrest," Chris Langton, the CEO of Samoa Air, told CNN.
The seat will also have 14 extra inches of legroom, which was created by removing the row in front of the seat. Part of the accommodation also includes a boarding ramp in lieu of steps to get into the plane for passengers that have mobility problems.
"Most people around 285 pounds struggle to get up most steps, so we've redesigned ours into a ramp to help bigger passengers get to their seats," Langton said.
Samoa Air is a small airline, with a fleet that only contains three planes, each with only 10 or fewer seats. It operates with the airline industry's only pay-as-you-weigh pricing scheme, which charges passengers based on the combined weight of their body and luggage.
The airline also transports some of the world's largest travelers.
A Forbes report in 2007 stated that 80 percent of Samoans are overweight, and it's unlikely that things have improved in the time since.
"Some of our customers top out at 460 pounds," Langton said. "Many come in around 160 kilos and around 40 percent in the 100-130 kilo range."
The move will become operational in one of the airline's planes on June 26, and it's meant to offset extra costs incurred under the controversial pay-as-you-weigh plan by acting as a trial for the potential implementation in other aircraft.
"Because some bigger passengers will be paying more, we want them to be comfortable," Langton said. "It's a precursor to what will happen to our 100-seater planes, which we'll start operating in three to six months."
Data collected by Samoa Air has shown that for every 50 passengers flown, three to four will weigh 352 pounds or more. The payment methodology has been criticized for condoning unhealthy eating that leads to excessive weight gain, though Langton disagrees.
"Airplanes run on weight, whether that's healthy weight or unhealthy," he said. "Our problem is putting that weight on seats and the fact that different people weigh different amounts.
"It's completely separate from the issue of health," he continued.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
