When it comes to airline policies, weight-based pricing is a concept that sparks both curiosity and controversy. While it has yet to gain traction due to ethical concerns, the idea raises questions about how air travel can balance environmental impact with customer fairness.
Hospitality Management Professor and Department Chair Markus Schuckert, and his international collaborators surveyed over 1,000 U.S. air travelers to understand public attitudes toward weight-based airfare policies. Their findings, published in the Journal of Tourism Research and Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, reveal that while most travelers prefer standard pricing models, younger and higher-income passengers show more openness to weight-based approaches.
Schuckert notes, “We wanted to explore how air travel could be made more sustainable, especially considering the weight we carry — both personal and baggage. The real question is how to design pricing that promotes sustainable choices without unfairly targeting certain customer segments.”
Read more about the study and its implications for sustainable transportation.
