CNN.com has a video article about the additional costs of flying airplanes due to the increased weight of passengers.
Basically the Airlines had to factor in years ago that people are getting fatter in their weight calculations for the amount of fuel on a flight. This has directly affected the cost of airline tickets. You can watch it for yourself.
What my proposition is however, is that you and your baggage are weighed, and you either get a ticket discount/coupon for weighing less, or have to pay more if you weigh more.
The main point is that if you weigh 300lbs, you should be paying more for the ticket than Mary Kate Olsen.
Similarly, if you bring 50lbs of baggage to check, and a 40lb bag to carryon, then you would be charged for that as well as opposed to a person (like me) that carries a single medium sized backpack for several days of travel.
This would not be discriminatory. The neutral weight would be based on some average of what a healthy person should weigh. Yes, men would have to pay more than women on average, but not all would. It is not discriminatory because it is equally looking at everyone and charging on a fair and equal basis. It is simple physics that it costs more energy to get something in the air that weighs more.
This would encourage Americans (finally) to slim down. The CNN video said that in the past decade that Americans average weight has increased by 10lbs!
