Airline luggage wastes fuel and money

THE BUDGET airline taking me to France charged for bags checked into the aircraft hold. This did not, I hasten to say, affect me as I travel with only a spare pair of underpants, a packet of Daz and a few cyanide capsules in case the worst comes to the worst.

There was a certain sadistic satisfaction in watching the worst offenders among my fellow travellers cough up for their excesses; camels through the eye of a needle. People invariably carry too much luggage when they travel and vast quantities of fuel are wasted transporting superfluous junk around the world. No animal, except ourselves, carries luggage when it travels.

Charging for bags checked into the holds of aircraft is a welcome development from the environmental point of view. The polluter should pay for the damage he or she does. Of course, the budget airlines are not motivated by concern for the environment. They just want to reduce their baggage handling costs. But every kilo lifted into the air means that additional fuel is burned, adding to greenhouse gas emissions. The next stage for the airlines is to weigh the hand luggage and charge for that also.