Fatties eating into airline profits

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/n...ntstory.jsp&1c

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Study: Fatter travelers weigh on airline profits
More weight means higher fuel costs, the CDC reported. The added cost in 2000
was estimated at $275 million.
By Daniel Yee
Associated Press

ATLANTA - America's growing waistlines are hurting the bottom lines of airline
companies, as the extra pounds on passengers create heftier fuel costs, a new
government study reveals.

Through the 1990s, the average weight of Americans increased by 10 pounds,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The extra weight
caused airlines to spend $275 million to burn 350 million more gallons of fuel
in 2000 just to carry the additional weight of Americans, the federal agency
estimated in a recent issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"The obesity epidemic has unexpected consequences beyond direct health effects,"
said Deron Burton of the CDC. "Our goal was to highlight one area that had not
been looked at before."

The extra fuel burned also had an environmental impact, as an estimated 3.8
million extra tons of carbon dioxide were released into the air, according to
the study.

The agency said its calculations were rough estimates, issued to highlight
previously undocumented consequences of the obesity epidemic.

The estimates were calculated by determining how much fuel the 10 extra pounds
of weight per passenger represented in Department of Transportation airline
statistics, Burton said.

Obesity was the underlying cause of 400,000 deaths in the United States in 2000,
a 33 percent jump from 1990. If current trends persist, it will become the
nation's No. 1 cause of preventable death, the CDC said earlier this year.

More than half - 56 percent - of U.S. adults were overweight or obese in the
early 1990s, according to a CDC survey. That rose to 65 percent in a similar
survey done from 1999 to 2002.

Although the Air Transport Association of America has not yet validated the CDC
data, spokesman Jack Evans said the health agency's appraisal "does not sound
out of the realm of reality."

With most airlines reporting losses blamed partly on record-high fuel costs,
airlines are doing everything they can to lighten the load on all aircraft.

Bulky magazines have gone out the door. Metal forks and spoons have been
replaced with plastic.

Large carry-ons are being scrutinized, and heavy materials that used to make up
airplane seats are being replaced with plastic and other lightweight materials.

"When you consider airlines are flying millions of miles, it adds up over time,"
Evans said.


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If you're a lean bike racer, you should leverage your light weight and ask for a
cheaper ticket. "Forget" to tell them how much your velosafe + bike wieghs.