Paris:
Should overweight passengers pay for 2 air tickets instead of one? Most American airlines make it mandatory. Now Air France KLM, the largest airline group in Europe, have decided to follow suit.
From 1st February, they will strongly "recommend" a second ticket for obese passengers. If a flight is full, any passenger who has only one ticket and does not fit in his seat will be offloaded for the sake of security. But how does someone know if they will fit or not?
For Air France, the recommended waistline is 53 inches for economy and 79 inches for first class. Also, a passenger should fit easily between the two armrests as emergency procedures require an aircraft to be evacuated in 90 seconds and in such a case, a person should be able to get out of his seat quickly.
"Imagine an aircraft of 400-500 seats that you have to evacuate in 90 seconds. If you have to spend 30 seconds in trying to extract a person from his seat, you'll lose terrible time and jeopardize the safety of others plus the crew", said Jean Pierre Lefevre, Spokesperson, Air France.
Although, Air France said they will reimburse the cost of the second ticket to the customer, if there are empty seats in the economy or business categories but this deal didn't quite strike the right chord. Associations for obese people say air travel is a traumatising experience for them and such rules will make things much worse.
"We see it as pure discrimination and a double penalty. Obesity is a sickness and you are ill after you reach a certain stage. What do they expect? That we should give our tickets and identity papers and then try to fit our bums into a seat? And if we don't fit, it's the fat cattle on one side and the important clients on the other side?", said Anne Sophie Joly, President of French Associations of the Obese.
So, it may be a good idea after all to measure your waistline if you're planning to fly.