When I first thought about airlines charging based on overall passenger weight, I thought, “No way…no airline would have the guts to do it.” But after thinking about it some and after all the recent weight-related airline news, I think this could actually work. Hear me out…
I couldn’t see Southwest or United doing something like this, but maybe someone more like Ryanair or Spirit would be willing to try it. Or at least they would advertise that they might do it in order to get free publicity, but never actually do it
Weight equals money. The heavier the plane, the more fuel it takes to move it and the more it costs. Just a little change can mean big savings for an airline. Think about shipping a package. Most of what you are paying for is weight. They will put your package on a scale, find out where it is going and give you the cost. The more it weighs, the more you pay. Why shouldn’t airlines do the same?
If airlines are looking at creative ways to reduce weight, why couldn’t one take it to the next step and charge for a passenger’s overall weight to get from point A to B?
Should a 80lb child with 10lbs of baggage pay the same amount to fly across country as a 250lb person with 150lbs of luggage? It almost doesn’t seem fair when you think about it. Yes, a child and 250lb person might take up a seat, but it won’t cost the airline the same amount to fly each across country.
I am not just talking about charging a passenger based on how much they weigh, but how much everything weighs that they are transporting. If you don’t weigh much and have no bags, your ticket might be extremely cheap. Where someone at 250lbs with bags will cost a bit more.
This game plan of course has its faults. Here are some of my major concerns:
* Would it cause people to do unhealthy behaviors to pay less? Like not eat for a few days or sweat out weight?
* How about passengers with documented disability of being overweight?
* At some point passengers will have to be weighed. Will they be willing to do it? They might… when flying on small prop aircraft, many will ask weight.
* What if a price cut off is at 200lbs and you are at 201lbs? That would be really frustrating.
* People would totally be upset about this. Bitch and moan and say they will never fly the airline. However, this happened with checked bag (and carry-on) fees, yet people still pay them. So short-term anger followed by acceptance would most likely be the course of action.
* Mary Kirby brought this one up…what about items you buy after you check in and are in the terminal. Like food, duty-free items, etc?
I would envision a big scale at the ticket counter. You step on it with all your gear. Only the ticket agent sees the total number. Or heck, maybe they don’t even see it and it just tells them how much your ticket will cost. Possibly, the first 150lbs get to fly for a cheap base fare and anything after that would get charged an extra $1 per pound. Someone who has a total weight 150lbs might pay $100.00 for a ticket and someone with 300lbs of total weight would pay $350.00 for the same flight.
Is this idea crazy? Possibly. But if it costs less to fly you and your stuff across country, why should you pay to fly someone else who has more weight? I would be willing to bet top dollar that airlines have already discussed this as a possibility. There might be some upfront costs, but I think a smaller airline might be able to make something like this work.
Think we might see this anytime soon? How would you react? Okay… time to hit the gym.
It is super sweet to board a Boeing 747-400 from the tarmac. Hold on...it's a long way up. Click for larger.
I have never flown on the upper deck of a Boeing 747. I have flown plenty of times on the lower level, but I have never had the opportunity to climb those stairs (photo) to the upper echelons of air travel.
Well, I still haven’t flown on the upper deck of a 747, but now I have been up in one. I have to admit, it is pretty darn awesome. During my recent trip to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to hang out with United Airlines, I was invited to check out the top deck and cockpit of one of their Boeing 747-400’s that was being set up for a 15 hour flight to Sydney, Australia.
Ah. The upper deck of a Boeing 747-400. Great seats, total exclusivity and an amazing view. Click for larger.
The upper deck is a world of its own. Even though there were only about 30 people (invited guests, United employees and cleaning crew) it was obviously quieter up top. Speaking with a flight attendant she said she loves working the top deck since it has a more laid back atmosphere than the much longer bottom deck. All the seats on this United 747 upper deck were International Business Class — which weren’t too shabby at all. The First Class Suites were all located in the nose section on the bottom deck (photo). Yea, the location isn’t as cool as the upper deck, but those first class seats are crazy-big.
Anyhow, back up top, the seats and service might be pretty slick, but the coolest part is up front… the cockpit. The cockpit isn’t just for flying, there is a lot of room to invite guests and take a nice little nap. Heck, I think it might have had more square footage than my first apartment (ok not really). Part of the cockpit houses a set of bunk beds for pilots (photo) to get some rest. There is also plenty of extra seating for the relief pilots. Flights over 8 hours will require one relief pilot and flights over 12 will require two. So there needs to be plenty of room up front for everyone to be comfortable and well rested.
Heck yes. The best seat in the house! Click for larger.
The Boeing 747 is one of my favorite aircraft. Even though the Airbus A380 might be larger and carry more people, it just doesn’t have the same awesome presence that the Boeing 747 does. I am very excited for Boeing to introduce the new Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental (video), which will allow the Boeing 747 to fly well into the future.
A special thanks for United and their employees for flying me down to LAX to enjoy this and other fun adventures.
The first Boeing 747 with all those airline logos -- how many do you recognize. Click for larger. Photo by Boeing.
September 30th marked the anniversary when the very first Boeing 747 (called the City of Everett) was rolled out of Boeing’s hangars. Since then, it has been a legend and still is my favorite airliner. The Boeing 747 started flying for PanAm in 1970 and the new variant, the Boeing 747-8 should be delivered during the middle of next year. This means the Boeing 747 should continue to be flying well into the future.
Boeing kindly shared via Twitter a photo of the first roll out. It is interesting to take a look at the airline logos on the aircraft and how many are no longer with us and there are some still flying Boeing 747’s. The first Boeing 747 is still alive and well, hanging out at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
So, without looking it up in Google, how many airline logos can you recognize? It is not really a competition, but let’s do some teamwork to figure them all out. If you know some, list them in the comments and hopefully we can get them all. Off the top of my head I know 18 of the 27 that are there. SEE LARGER VERSION.
I have been a fan of flight simulator since it first came out in DOS. Those were the days when the planes were made up of about 100 pixels and the entire game fit on a few floppy disks.
Even though Microsoft recently announced they will be creating a new version called Microsoft Flight, it still won’t be able to compare to the flight simulators at Delta Air Lines training facility in Atlanta.
Delta has about 30 simulators of many different aircraft types. They even have a few for planes they no longer fly, since other airlines will train their pilots on Delta’s simulators. I was lucky enough to try my skills in a Boeing 737-200. I have flown an F/A-18 simulator, an E/A-6B sim, had time on MS Flight Sim and taken the controls a few times when flying in personal aircraft, but this was the largest I have even “flown.”
What an awesome set up. A full replica cockpit of a Boeing 737 with full motion. On the first flight we started out at the fake Atlanta airport, parked at the gate. Instead of having to be pushed back by a tug and wait in line to take off, we were able to push a button and be whisked to the end of one of the runways to take off.
My guide Mike asked if I fly. I told him I do not, gave him the run-down of my experience and we were off. He set my flaps for me and get me set. I was able to put the throttle up half way for a warm up, then full throttle. We were off. Hit V1, then V2 and rotate. Delta Manager of Media Relations, Trebor Banstetter was brave enough to take the flight with us and video the experience.
Now, I have never really flown a Boeing 737-200 before, but it sure seemed real. The sounds, the motion, the response of the aircraft. The aircraft felt heavy and responded just how I assumed it would. The motion was quite cool. When we sped up, it would tilt back, giving the impression of speed. Again when we slowed, it would tilt forward. When we banked, it banked and so forth.
Flew around the airport and set up for a landing. From the days of flying with my father, I knew of the red and white lights were there to help me on my slope path. At the time, I forgot they were called Visual Approach Slope Indicator (VASI), but I remembered his saying, “Red and white, you’re alright. Red over red, you’re dead.” These (and Mike) helped to guide me down at the correct rate.
I was able to land pretty well dead-on where I should have. Touched town and put the reverse thrusters on. I was supposed to let up at 80kts, but forgot to put my feet on the peddles to brake the aircraft, so I came to a complete stop with the thrust reversers. Oh well.
This is where the video ends, but we weren’t done. I turned around on the runway and did it over again. The second time it was a pretty rough landing, but I got the brakes correct and we still were on the runway. Probably would have had some negative feedback from the passengers, but what can you expect from David Airlines that is flying a Boeing 737-200?
Mike asked if we wanted to do something fun? Well, heck I thought we were doing fun stuff, but sure. With another push of a button we were all of a sudden at Reagan National Airport (DCA) in Washington, DC. He took the controls (with my permission, since I was in the Captain’s seat) and we had a quick take off and buzzed the Washington Monument, Capital Building and White House. After the scenic tour, I was able to land the plane safely back at DCA.
For me, this was all fun (a lot of fun), but these simulators are very important for training pilots. I had easy scenarios and help from Mike. However, pilots are given challenging cases like severe weather, loss of power and much worse. These simulators help prepare pilots to react to situations they hope they will never encounter.
There has been a lot of talk about these new SkyRider seats where people get only 23″ of seatpitch vs 30″+ of most other low cost carriers. Well, it could be worse. Tatarstan Airlines, based in the Russia Federation, allowed six passengers to stand for a five hour flight.
You see, a charter group booked out all 148 seats on a Tatarstan Boeing 737 from Antalya, Turkey to Ekaterinburg, Russia. At the last minute, the airline had to swap out planes, but the new 737 only had 142 seats. This is where the big mistake was made.
Instead of telling six people they won’t be able to take the flight, they gave them a choice. Either wait seven hours until the next flight or fly on this one standing up for five hours. Decisions, decisions. Well, all six people decided to stand.
The airline should have never given the choice to the passengers. There are grave safety issues with having extra people on an aircraft. Weight, life vests and no security from turbulence. I don’t know who is more stupid in this scenario, the airline that gave the option to stand or the passengers who took them up on the offer.
Not related to the story, but I wanted to share this photo of two old IL-86’s that Tartarstan used to fly.
