Airlines grapple with fat flier issue

When film director Kevin Smith was recently kicked off a flight because of his size, he focused his anger on Southwest, but the incident put the spotlight on all airlines and their heavy passenger policies.

Smith said that he had no trouble buckling his seat belt and lowering his armrests on the flight Saturday and that his neighbors didn’t complain about him invading their space.

He said he suspected he may have been bumped by an airline employee who did not like his films.

Southwest has apologized to Smith — twice — but said he was not singled out to be removed.

“Our employees made the decision to remove Kevin after a quick judgment call that he might have needed more than one seat for his comfort and those seated next to him,” wrote Linda Rutherford, Southwest’s vice president of communications and strategic outreach, on the airline’s blog.

On his blog, Smith countered that all he wanted Southwest to do was admit that he wasn’t “too fat to fly” and that the incident “was all an unfortunate error” on the airline’s part. He expressed frustration that Southwest had not done so.

A related story has generated thousands of comments from readers passionate about both sides of the issue.

“This whole thing has gotten so ridiculous. Southwest and all of the other airlines need to make bigger seats. Kevin Smith and the rest of America has become bigger and bigger, the airlines need to accommodate that, plain and simple,” wrote one poster.

But another summed up the frustration of other air travelers.

“I did the fly-up-on-Monday-fly-home-on Friday thing for three years straight and nothing struck fear into the hearts of my fellow fliers more than seeing a ridiculously large person lumbering down the aisle as we were all boarding. Kudos to the airline for standing up for its passengers,” the poster wrote.

Who makes the decision?

The weight issue has been a delicate one for airlines trying to respond to concerns from both large passengers and those feeling crushed while sitting next to them.

“It’s embarrassing — airlines don’t want to touch this with a 20-foot pole,” said Rick Seaney, CEO of Farecompare.com, an airfare comparison shopping site. “[But] this is only going to get worse.”

A third of Americans are now classified as obese, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, but the width of a coach airplane seat has changed little, remaining between 17 and 18 inches in most commercial planes.

The Federal Aviation Administration does not regulate seat width, but it does require passengers be able to sit belted and with both armrests down to comply with safety standards.

Ultimately, it is up to each airline to decide which passengers are too big to safely fly in one seat, said Brandon Macsata, executive director of the Association for Airline Passenger Rights. That means a gate agent, flight attendant or pilot can make that determination.