If you fly abroad or to distant cities in your country at least 2 times a year, you must ever thought about the inadequacy of airfares pricing. You may know  that fuel usage is directly related to the weight of the aircraft, and that's exactly why we have to pay those extra charges for overweight luggage. Still, it sounds ridiculous that a person has to pay extra for additional several pounds on their luggage while the seat itself would cost them the same regardless whether they weight 80 or 280 pounds. The idea of weight-based airfares is nothing new and it has been floating around for decades. But this year Samoa Air, a small airline in the Pacific region, has become the first company to actually adopt this concept to the surprise and frustration of thousands of travelers.

As strange and outrageous it may sound, Samoa Air is the first company that you can get cheap air tickets from for being thin. And if you think about it for a second, their approach sounds very logic. What they do is that they set a base rate for all their flights, which are usually small flights between local islands, and multiply it by the passenger's and their luggage's total weight. For example, a flight from the Samoa's capital Apiu to Asau has the base fare of $1.32, which is multiplied by the passenger's total weight including luggage. So if your weight is 160 pounds and your luggage is 40 pounds (a total of approximately 100 kilograms) then the flight will cost you $132 ($1.32 by 100 kilos). And if you're only 100 pounds with no luggage then the price will be nearly twice as less. This sure sounds great for lightweight travellers as they will always get cheap air tickets with this airline. But is it actually fair?

Samoa Air has faced substantial criticism on launching this pricing scheme, which has earned the nickname "fat tax". And this was certainly very unpleasant for Samoan women, 80% of whom are estimated to be medically obese by the World Health Organization. Perphaps this statistical fact was one of the reasons why the company has decided to go with the controversial pricing scheme. Still it seems there's certain logic and rationalism behind this decision. Fuel use is directly affected by the aircraft's weight. And when speaking of the small aircrafts used by Samoa air, every passenger's weight counts. So instead of charging for seats that can weight differently, the airline is charging for something that affects their costs in a direct manner. You can call this pricing policy whatever you want, but you have to give the airline credit for being very smart with their accounting.

Some of you may wonder how this pricing scheme actually works. Well, it's very simple. When booking a flight online you have to enter your approximate weight including the luggage and you will get the booking price. After that, when you arrive to the airport, the workers of Samoa Air will weight you and your luggage on site and will charge you the exact airfare depending on your exact weight. To some travelers this might sound outrageous, but is it really so especially when compared to luggage checks and internal scans that have become routine in US airports? So if you needed a good reason for losing some weight, having the opportunity to get cheap air tickets with Samoa Air is certainly one of them.