Air Samoa requests passengers enter their weight when they book flights online.
Their mass is then added to the weight of their baggage and used to calculate the fare cost, with thinner people paying considerably less than their larger counterparts.
On short flights, the pay-per-kilo rate is as low as $1 a kilogram, while longer flights have higher rates of more than $4 for the passenger and their luggage.
The airline — which was established last year and services the Pacific Islands of Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands and French Polynesia — boasts its pricing policy is the “fairest way to fly”.
“This is the fairest way of you travelling with your family or yourself,” Air Samoa’s CEO Chris Langton told ABC radio. “You can put your baggage on, there is no separate fees because of excess baggage — it’s just a kilo is a kilo is a kilo.
“The people that have been most pleasantly surprised are families because we don’t charge on the seat requirement, even though a child is required to have a seat — we just weigh them.
“So a family of maybe two adults and a couple of mid-sized kids and younger children can travel at considerable less than what they were being charged before.”
But while parents might be relieved to pay less for kids, there are likely to be many others who are outraged by the controversial fare structure. What do you think? Are the fares fair or outrageous?
