Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
I lover user fee based systems. Although I think that the marginal cost for high weight people would make relatively little difference in terms of the cost of a flight.
A 747-8I has a maximum takeoff weight of roughly 1 million lbs. The maximum payload is 170,000. It has about 500 seats *200lbs/person - 100,000 lbs.
Essentially passengers and fuel for passengers can account for at the most 50% of the fuel cost for the flight. Now fuel costs are somewhere around 30-35% of an airlines costs. So if 50% of the fuel is attributed to passenger and baggage weight and 35% of costs is fuel then only 17% of the ticket cost is actually fuel cost.
So take a $500 tickt cost with an average passenger weight of 170lbs. $85 of fuel cost per person or 50 cents a lb. A 120lb person would pay $60 for fuel and a 250lb person would pay $125 for fuel. So the 120lb person would pay $480 for their ticket and the 250lb person would pay $540. Is it worth it for the airline to do this as now you have to weigh everyone before your flight and deal with refunds for people?
I dont see the value in it. And are you going to attract new customers or for most people traveling with a spouse it will balance off and people traveling business won't care because the company is paying for it.
|
As well, it would cause grief for people who show up at the airport already checked in with no bags. Instead of walking through security and on to the plane there will be an additional step and it would likely be before security so that they can weigh anyone with their bags which means waiting in line at the check-in counter.