Budget airline Ryanair is encouraging passengers to vote how a ‘fat tax’ should be charged to overweight passengers.

Visitors of budget airline Ryanair’s website have voted heavily in favour – 29% – of the implementation of a ‘fat tax’ – an excess charge for “very large passengers”.

The airline’s website has encouraged its online visitors to vote for whichever cost reduction idea they believe should be implemented, and so far more than 100,000 people have voted.

Alongside suggestions of excess fees for obese passengers were a charge for smoking in a specially-converted toilet cubicle and a €2 ‘corkage’ charge for those passengers who bring their own food to eat during the flight.

As a charge for overweight people proved the most popular choice, Ryanair is now asking people to vote for how the charge should be formatted. For example, it is asking passengers whether there should be a charge for every waist inch over 45 inches for men and 40 for women, or whether it should be charge if a passenger’s waist “touches both armrests simultaneously”.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara defended the decision to investigate the ‘fat tax’ further: “With passengers voting overwhelmingly for a ‘fat tax’ we are now asking them to suggest which format the charge should take. In all cases we’ve limits at very high levels so that a ‘fat tax’ will only apply to those really large passengers who invade the space of the passengers sitting beside them.
 
“These charges, if introduced, might also act as an incentive to some of our very large passengers to lose a little weight and hopefully feel a little lighter and healthier. The revenues from any such fat tax will be used to lower the airfares for all Ryanair passengers even further. Passengers can vote for their preference on www.ryanair.com until Monday 27 April.”

The airline has sparked controversy throughout 2009. In February, it announced it was considering charging its passengers £1 to use it onboard toilets, while also in February it revealed it would charge passengers £30 if they could not fit all their duty-free purchases into one single bag.

However, it is not the first airline to consider charging larger passengers. United Airlines, one of America’s leading airlines, has also proposed that large passengers should pay for two seats, rather than one.