Airline to charge passengers by body weight

Samoa Air is going to start charging not by the seat, but by the kilo, with rates of $1 to $4.16 per kilo of combined passenger and luggage. This makes complete sense: the economics of air travel is dictated by the *physics* of air travel; and fuel burned is directly driven by the weight of the aircraft. The engines don’t care if they are transporting 100 100-kilogram people, or 1000 10-kilogram toddlers.

By charging by total weight, this will encourage people to travel lighter. Not only less luggage, but perhaps shedding a few of their own pounds.