Tourism committee chairwoman Marlene Mortler (CSU) condemned deliberations by Irish airline Ryanair to introduce a surcharge for overweight people as an unacceptable form of discrimination: “Someone who intends to further punish clinically overweight people by imposing a surcharge is clearly crossing the line of intolerability,” said Mortler. She urged Ryanair to “immediately give up on this degrading idea.”

Mortler underscored that obese people often suffered social ostracizm and limited mobility in their everyday lives to begin with. “Kicking them when they’re down under the pretense of economization lacks all decency.” She stated that she understood that, being a low-budget carrier, Ryanair was trying to make use of any opportunities for economization available during the crisis, and that the airline had every right to do so. “But the proverbial tightening one’s belt cannot go so far as to infringe on people’s dignity,” Mortler said.

Our picture shows Marlene Mortler in a conversation with the Tunisian Minister of Tourism, Tijani Haddad, at ITB Berlin. Haddad is also president of the international association of tourism journalists FIJET and a candidate for becoming the next UNWTO Secretary-General.