Big thorn in UAL's side: fat fliers Bulky passengers weigh down planes, push up fuel costs = (AP) =97 Heavy suitcases aren't the only things weighing down airplanes = and requiring them to burn more fuel, pushing up the cost of flights. A n= ew government study reveals that airlines increasingly have to worry more= about the weight of their passengers. = America's growing waistlines are hurting the bottom lines of airline comp= anies as the extra pounds on passengers are causing a drag on planes. Hea= vier fliers have created heftier fuel costs, according to the government = study. = = continued below Advertisement = = = = Fuel is the second largest expense UAL Corp.=92s United Airlines faces, b= ehind labor costs. Rising oil prices, which topped $55 per barrel of crud= e oil recently, will cause United=92s fuel costs to rise by about $150 mi= llion for the second half of 2004, bringing its total fuel costs $1.2 bil= lion over budget for the year. The Elk Grove Township-based carrier antic= ipates that its 2005 fuel expenses will be $475 million higher than previ= ously estimated, according to a filing with a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Ch= icago last month (ChicagoBusiness.com,. Oct. 27). = Larger loads Through the 1990s, the average weight of Americans increased by 10 pounds= , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The extra = weight caused airlines to spend $275 million to burn 350 million more gal= lons of fuel in 2000 just to carry the additional weight of Americans, th= e federal agency estimated in a recent issue of the American Journal of P= reventive Medicine. = "The obesity epidemic has unexpected consequences beyond direct health ef= fects," said Dr. Deron Burton of the CDC. "Our goal was to highlight one = area that had not been looked at before." = The extra fuel burned also had an environmental impact, as an estimated 3= =2E8 million extra tons of carbon dioxide were released into the air, acc= ording to the study. = The agency said its calculations are rough estimates, issued to highlight= previously undocumented consequences of the ongoing obesity epidemic. = The estimates were calculated by determining how much fuel the 10 extra p= ounds of weight per passenger represented in Department of Transportation= airline statistics, Burton said. = Obesity is a life-or-death struggle in the United States, the underlying = cause of 400,000 deaths in 2000, a 33 percent jump from 1990. If current = trends persist, it will become the nation's No. 1 cause of preventable de= ath, the CDC said earlier this year. = More than half =97 56 percent =97 of U.S. adults were overweight or obese= in the early 1990s, according to a CDC survey. That rose to 65 percent i= n a similar survey done from 1999 to 2002. = Although the Air Transport Association of America has not yet validated t= he CDC data, spokesman Jack Evans said the health agency's appraisal "doe= s not sound out of the realm of reality." = With most airlines reporting losses blamed partly on record-high fuel cos= ts, everything on an airplane is now a weighty issue. Airlines are doing = everything they can to lighten the load on all aircraft, from wide-body j= ets to turboprops. Bulky magazines have gone out the door. Metal forks an= d spoons have been replaced with plastic. Large carry-ons are being scrut= inized and even heavy materials that used to make up airplane seats are b= eing replaced with plastic and other lightweight materials. = "We're dealing in a world of small numbers =97 even though it has a very = incremental impact" to reduce a 60- to 120-ton aircraft's weight by bumpi= ng off a few magazines, Evans said. "When you consider airlines are flyin= g millions of miles, it adds up over time." = Although passenger bulk has been an issue in the past =97 Dallas-based So= uthwest Airlines requires large people to buy a second seat for passenger= safety and comfort =97 Evans says it's not likely airlines will scrutini= ze how much passengers weigh in the future. Instead, they are trying to d= o a better job of estimating passenger weight in figuring out how much fu= el they need for a flight. = Seattle-based Alaska Airlines now calculates the weight of children on fl= ights, instead of using adult-weight formulas for all passengers, Evans s= aid. = "Just like we don't control the costs of our fuel, we don't control the w= eights of our passengers," he said. "Passengers gain weight, but airlines= are the ones that go on a diet. It's part of the conundrum we face right= now." = Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may n= ot be published, broadcast or redistributed. Previous Story | = Roger EWROPS