A court in Canada has upheld a decision that requires airlines to make additional seats free to disabled or obese passengers who need extra room.  Under the ruling, airlines cannot charge extra for an obese person who needs an additional seat or a disabled person who needs space for a wheelchair or stretcher or who must be accompanied by an attendant.

The Canadian Transportation Agency estimated the cost to Air Canada at about $7 million Canadian (A$8.7 million) a year.

I have no problem with the requirement for disabled travellers.  There are people whose disabilities require them to need extra space.  Fair enough.  (Although one might argue its not the airlines’ place to pay for this, and that they should pay full fares with government subsidies to compensate for the additional costs).

But WTF with obese people?  That’s a lifestyle choice, and if you get to the point where your arse is so wide that you need 2 seats, I really fail to see why anyone except yourself should be paying for it.  Mind you, as a matter of practicality I could see why it could be in an airlines’ interests to allocate 2 seats to a really fat person …. ie to avoid complaints from the passengers who have to get squeezed into seats next to them (is there much worse on a plane than having the person next to you overflowing into your seat – I mean its a tight enough squeeze as it is).  And I say this as not exactly a lightweight myself – but still way off needing a spare seat to fit my arse into.  So my message to the Canadians on this is get real and tell these fat people to get their acts together, eat better and do more exercise,  so they don’t actually need 2 seats – and don’t expect others to pay for their lifestyle choices.