37 
So this is properly strange — an EasyJet flight from Liverpool to Geneva was stopped from taking off yesterday after they discovered the aircraft was 300kg over the weight limit, and EasyJet had failed to boot people off. The pasengers’ solution? Have a whip-round to bribe the fatties into leaving.
According to EasyJet, the plane was over the limit because of “excessive” hold baggage and a higher-than-normal dudes-to-chicks ratio making the plane too heavy. EasyJet initially offered £100 and a flight the next morning to anyone willing to get off, but failed to deter any of the would-be skiers from flying. The passengers took matters into their own hands, holding a whip-round to bump the compensation up to £200, and EasyJet offered a flight from Birmingham a few hours later. That did the trick, and the plane was up, up and away.
This story poses so many questions: why were there so many guys flying to Geneva all at once? Why are EasyJet such stingy misers? What was being smuggled in the hold to add all that weight? All I can say is, good on the passengers (even if they weren’t exactly acting out of altruism), and EasyJet, stop scrimping. [Daily Mail]
Image credit: Easyjet from Shutterstock
Italian Jet Company Converts Passenger Plane Into the World's Most Stylish UAV
EasyJet 'Speedy Booking' Mobile App Launching This Week
An EasyJet Holiday For Just £100 Is Your "Let's Get the Heck Out of Here" Deal of the Day
What heavy equipment could possibly have been in the hold on a plane to a ski resort?
I do ever so wonder.
easyjet should do a new billboard advertisement saying “Sorry, no fat chicks”
Except it was fat dudes that was the problem.
I know Ryanair put more seats on there planes then recommended, easyjet probably do the same.
an even better question is how making one person get off the flight reduces the weight by 300KG??
that’s almost 50 stone? surprised they could get him through the door in the first place.
One fatties plus his ski equipment? Still hard to see how it adds up to 300kg.
Probably more than one passenger left the flight.
Airlines need to start weighing hand luggage….might also mean more space for everyone in the overhead lockers.
Yeah as a student who flies home with almost all my possessions in a suitcase, I’m so grateful for Easyjet’s “as long as it’s a certain size and you can lift it” policy for hand luggage.
Technically they do try and limit the size of the hand luggage by getting it to fit in the bins (though I’ll admit I have pushed it a few times
)
Your ticket price should be relative to your body weight anyway!
Yep. You knows it.
Fully agreed, but I’m a considerate passenger, I always take a nice big dump before I get on the plane
They probably could have offloaded all the crap food nobody every buys and the trolleys they come in.
I think normal people, non-obese should get to carry more luggage. I weigh about 75 kg, and I am allowed a baggage limit of 23 kg. If I want to carry more than that I have to pay a small fortune. However, someone who weighs over 136 kg (that’s over 300 lbs) also get the same baggage limit. The difference in body weight is nearly 3 times the luggage limit.
While I do agree with you on this one I believe that Ryanair have tried this one before. They were told that they would have million pound lawsuits on there ass. Its the same with the charging for toilets and charging passengers less to stand on a plane
I do feel slightly cheated when flying budget airlines. On one flight from edinburgh > alicante i had a 10kg hand luggage and a book in my hand. The gate staff made me put my book into my bag before getting on the plane. Once seated on the flight a BIG guy must have been about 24 stone got on the plane and sat opposite me on the isle. His suitcase was a full size suitcase. He could barely get the thing up the isle and needless to say it did not fit in the overhead locker…. but yet he got past the same gate staff as me who challenged me for a BOOK
Out of curiosity. What book were you reading?
Barca The Making of the Greatest Team in History by Graham Hunter. it’s a good read for any Barcelona or football fan
Not really a thick book, it was not like I was attempting to take the entire A-Z britanica collection onboard
Hang on, this situation is all EasyJet’s fault and all they offered was £100, not enough to even cover a hotel for 2 people for the night, and the onus was then on the passengers to cobble a financial bribe together?
Total disgrace really, but at least the situation was resolved.