Fare deal for obese air travellers
A CANADIAN tribunal has ordered domestic airlines to charge clinically obese or disabled passengers accompanied by an attendant only one ticket to fly, even if they take up two or more seats.I'm sorry, but when you're running a business and charge a certain price for a seat, it's fundamentally unfair to expect the company to have up to three people fly for the price of one.
Under the Canadian Transportation Agency ruling, airlines have one year to bring in a "one-person-one-fare" policy for persons with severe disabilities who require two seats to accommodate them.
It also applies to disabled persons who need a medical attendant seated with them on flights.
However, it is up to the airlines themselves to come up with a screening process to assess eligibility, said the agency.
The decision follows a 2002 complaint and lawsuits by an obese woman and two severely disabled people, backed by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, who had requested extra seats on flights for themselves or attendants at no extra cost, but were denied.
In a statement, the Canadian Transportation Agency said its ruling is "based on longstanding principles of equal access to transportation services for persons with disabilities, regardless of the nature of the disability."
It also respects related high court and federal court decisions.
In January 2006, the Federal Court of Appeal confirmed "that a person who is obese may be (considered) disabled for purposes of air travel if unable to fit in an airline seat."
The Canadian Transportation Agency said in its decision Canada's two major airlines failed to demonstrate that implementation of a one-person-one-fare policy would impose undue hardship on them.
If you're so obese you needs two seats, pony up or find another means of transportation.
Meanwhile, in other obesity news, a health economist now says being a fat slob is a lifestyle choice, and we owe it all to capitalism.
As adult obesity balloons in the United States, being overweight has become less of a health hazard and more of a lifestyle choice, the author of a new book argues.
"Obesity is a natural extension of an advancing economy. As you become a First World economy and you get all these labor-saving devices and low-cost, easily accessible foods, people are going to eat more and exercise less," health economist Eric Finkelstein told AFP.
In "The Fattening of America", published this month, Finkelstein says that adult obesity more than doubled in the United States between 1960 and 2004, rising from 13 percent to around 33 percent.
Globally, only Saudi Arabia fares worse than the United States in terms of the percentage of adults with a severe weight problem -- 35 percent of people in the oil-rich desert kingdom are classified as obese, the book says, citing data from the World Health Organization and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
With the rising tide of obesity come health problems and an increased burden on the healthcare system and industry.
"But the nasty side-effects of obesity aren't as nasty as they used to be," Finkelstein said.
"When you have a first-rate medical system that can cure the diseases that obesity promotes, you no longer need to worry so much about being obese," he told AFP.
"With our ever-advancing modern medicine there helping to save the day (at least for many people), are government and the media blowing the magnitude of the 'obesity crisis' out of proportion?" his book says.
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