I think they should just make everyone get on a scale with everything that they plan to bring on the plane, and you get charged a fixed rate for a seat, plus some additional fee according to how much total weight you are bringing onto the plane.

George Hobica, founder of airfarewatchdog.com, a discount-travel Web site, thinks charging passengers by weight makes perfect sense because they cause the plane to burn more fuel. But he admits a poundage penalty might be hard to sell.

Considering that the plane with a full fuel tank probably weighs at least 110,000 or 120,000 pounds, I don't think the weight of passengers is exactly making a huge difference.

I know it is not the most PC thing to say but now that we are paying for luggage by weight, it is only fair that people pay for their air ticket by weight too. I see nothing wrong with a 250 lb person paying twice the price of a 125 lb person. The airlines will agree with me on technical grounds; they are just afraid of lawsuits; but trust me it will come from skinny people one day.