Air France says overweight man must pay for two tix to fly...
Aug 16, 1999, 9:36 am
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Join Date: May 1999
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Air France says overweight man must pay for two tix to fly...
PARIS (Reuters) - French national carrier Air France received a lashing from Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot for preventing both an overweight man and a handicapped man from flying with the airline.
It was the second ministerial attack in swift succession on the partially privatized carrier, and added to a wave of criticism from human rights groups against its passenger policy.
The company got into trouble last month when it refused a man with Downs Syndrome from boarding an internal flight. It got more bad publicity last week when it barred a man weighing 375 pounds from flying to China with a single ticket.
Air France said he was so big he filled the space of two seats and therefore had to pay for two tickets.
"I am scandalized by these stories," Transport Minister Gayssottold the Sunday weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. "To be dealing with people (like this) who are already penalized in their daily life is intolerable."
It was the second ministerial attack in swift succession on the partially privatized carrier, and added to a wave of criticism from human rights groups against its passenger policy.
The company got into trouble last month when it refused a man with Downs Syndrome from boarding an internal flight. It got more bad publicity last week when it barred a man weighing 375 pounds from flying to China with a single ticket.
Air France said he was so big he filled the space of two seats and therefore had to pay for two tickets.
"I am scandalized by these stories," Transport Minister Gayssottold the Sunday weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. "To be dealing with people (like this) who are already penalized in their daily life is intolerable."
