US airlines are spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year in extra fuel costs to get planes off the ground – because their passengers are so fat.
According to researchers at the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the ten pound (4.5 kg) increase in the weight of the average American during the 1990s is costing airlines an extra $275 million in fuel costs to carry the additional weight of passengers in 2000.
With fuel costs rising too – bankrupt United Airlines said last week it will spend $1.2 billion more on fuel this year than first projected – Fat People on planes are no longer purely a matter of comfort or aesthetics.
Though the calculations do not measure variables like the weight distribution of the flying public or the type of aircraft flown, they are yet another sign that there is no such thing as a free lunch, even on a plane.