Airline passenger news and views

Part of me feels a little saddened by the vast majority of overweight individuals in today’s society. They have been brought down by the quick and easy foods now available in our shops and pushed to the masses by our advertising! High in sugar or fat and low in anything nutritional, who is really to blame, the consumers or the country which pushes these products?? Perhaps a tighter leash on what goes into what we sell on our shelves would be time better spent instead of focusing on accommodating our growing nation?

There are some rediculous cases out there which just seem to be growing and the professionals are not fully equipped to deal with it. I also think it will b a long time before we see this country adapt.

Having gone through some of the comments from the original overweight article it makes me want to ask these people if they own their own pitchforks! No one chooses to be overweight or at least over the "socially accepted" weight. Many people suffer from medical or mental disorders. Airline seats have never been that great to begin with but yay to all those discriminating their follow man in favour of some cms of comfort, really it should be your adorned airlines which should be ridiculed for their thrifting!

I am not knocking the overweight but, if you are sitting next to one of them, then that person is a nuisance.
I do not mind whether you blame medical or mental disorders or if you blame the airline for making the seats too small but the fact is that you have an uncomfortable journey and possibly a less safe one.

Lets remember that we are all humans and have feelings. The comments made by some are so nasty it makes me wonder if the individuals making the comments have ever experienced any health problems in their life. I have lived with obesity all my adult life and have tried so many times to lose weight, alongside the obesity comes depression and I have on several occasions tried to take my own live. I feel like my whole life has been one battle and could do without reading such negative comments. I would never have the confidence to board a plane for fear of being ridiculed.

I am fat not obese and I find airline seats far to small. However I do not think this is a problem just for overweight people, I have been listening to a slim colleague who has just travelled back to the UK from Hong Kong and even he said how cramped the seating was. Lets not just aim this topic at overweight humans as it even affects the slimmest of people.

I can not get over people who refer to an over weight person as 'one of them' like they are a socially unaccepted race!

I am overweight and recently went to visit my parents who live abroad. I was treated like a second-class citizen, but not buy the airline staff by other travellers, when is society going to accept that we aren't all perfect?

I do think people can do something about their size. I was overweight for a long time, but I got very embarrassed especially when flying. I decided to do something about it. The trouble is people are too afraid to speak their mind these days, and the discussion of obesity and making comments about others is almost a taboo subject. Why should people put up with being made uncomfortable when they are flying? I took the step, so can others.

I saw today on the front page of a tabloid that a 17-year-old girl is 40 stone. How on earth has she been allowed to get to that size? I know every case is different but in this instance surely her parent have to take a large chunk of the responsibility.

I totally agree with Trish, this is totally unacceptable! Surely it is a form of abuse? I would be interested to see how her flight to America was she went there for treatment.

Very little of this argument is about fatties, it is about the effect of fatties on other people and on safety in general.
I do not care whether they are fat, thin, tall or short but if it means that I cannot sit properly in my seat or get out of it in an emergency then it does become my business.

I sympathise with both sides in this debate. I have a friend that is very large for medical rather than gluttony reasons. I also recognise that she could be a danger to other passengers in the event of an accident.