Fat Tax for Budget Airline Ryanair

Fat Tax for Budget Airline Ryanair Irish airline Ryanair has said it is looking at how it could introduce a ‘fat tax’. Ryanair, which already charges separately for services like food on board, asked customers to vote for their favourite cost reduction idea on its website over the last two weeks.

The move came after Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary caused a storm earlier this year by suggesting passengers could be charged to use toilets onboard aeroplanes.

Voting via www.ryanair.co.uk, over 100,000 passengers took part in the survey to decide which cost reduction idea should win a €1,000 cash prize. The airline confirmed the final poll results as follows:

  • 29 per cent – Excess fees for very overweight passengers
  • 25 per cent – €1 for toilet paper with O’Leary’s face on it
  • 24 per cent – €3 to smoke in a converted toilet cubicle
  • 14 per cent – Annual subscription to access Ryanair.com
  • 8 per cent – €2 ‘corkage’ fee for passengers who bring their own food on board

    • Ryanair says the next move is to ask travellers how any such charge could be levied, with one option being to charge male passengers who weigh over 130 kilograms or females over 100 kilograms for every extra kilogram they carry. Another alternative is charging for a second seat if a passenger’s waist touches both armrests simultaneously.

    “With passengers voting overwhelmingly for a ‘fat tax’, we are now asking them to suggest which format the charge could take,” said Ryanair spokesperson Stephen McNamara.

    “These charges, if introduced, might also act as an incentive to some of our very large passengers to lose a little weight.”


    Travel Website news posted by Marilyn on 24 April 2009

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