Skift Take
Samoa is extremely difficult to contact given its current publicity. The fare scheme is actually plausible given the size of Samoa’s aircraft, but it’d never fly for a major airline.
A tiny Samoa airline is giving passengers a big reason to lose weight: tickets sold not by the seat, but by the kilogram.
Samoa Air planned on Wednesday to start pricing its first international flights based on the weight of its passengers and their bags. Depending on the flight, each kilogram (2.2 pounds) costs 93 cents to $1.06.
That means the average American man weighing 195 pounds with a 35-pound bag would pay $97 to go one-way between Apia, Samoa, and Pago Pago, American Samoa. Competitors typically charge $130 to $140 roundtrip for similar routes.
The weight-based pricing is not new to the airline, which launched in June. It has been using the pricing model since November, but in January the U.S. Department of Transportation approved its international route between American Samoa and Samoa.
The airline's chief executive, Chris Langton, said Tuesday that "planes are run by
