On the return journey his seats were located in two different rows

Les Price said the airline's staff didn't seem to understand its policy

A British man has lashed out at an airline’s plans to weigh passengers before flights, saying heavier travellers already suffer enough embarrassment when they fly.

Les Price, who weighs 35st (490lbs), was forced to purchase two seats when he flew to Ireland two years ago, but the seats weren’t even next to each other and complained the airline's staff didn't seem to understand its policy on heavier passengers.

The experience was so traumatising for the 45-year-old, from Brynithel near Newport, South Wales, he hasn’t been on a plane since.

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Les Price (right), who weighs 35st (490lbs), was forced to purchase two seats when he flew to Ireland two years ago

Mr Price, who spoke of the experience on ITV’s This Morning, had no other choice but to pay for two seats due to the airline’s rules for passengers weighing more than 20st.

Someone else booked the tickets for him, and he said it was ‘farcical’ because the outbound journey had one seat in the aisle and the other at the window, with a passenger seated between them.

On the return journey ‘one was in row 17 on the left and the other was in row 19 on the right’, he said.

Mr Price has never been weighed before a flight, and said the requirement to pay for a second seat is more for the comfort of the person seated next to him than his own.

The widower said: ‘The seat is only a certain size. It doesn’t matter whether I pay for two seats or not, I’ve still got to fit in that seat.

Mr Price was speaking about his experiences on This Morning with travel expert Simon Calder (left)

‘If I’m paying for a seat I want to be comfortable, whether it means somebody else can’t sit next to me, but give that little bit of extra room.’

‘It put me off last time I flew, so it’s been a few years now since I flew and my health has got a bit worse.’

Mr Price gradually gained weight as he got older, but fell into a depression and turned to comfort eating following the death of his wife, Zeruiah, in 2009.

Uzbekistan Airways, the Central Asian country’s national carrier, has set off a firestorm of controversy over its decision to weigh passengers before allowing them to board.

It said all passengers will have to stand on scales with their personal luggage after they have checked in and that the decision is based on flight safety.

It will mean some overweight travellers could be excluded from busy flights on smaller planes if limits are exceeded.

Travel expert Simon Calder, who joined Mr Price on This Morning, said European airlines force passengers to pay for an adjacent seat if they do not fit.

He said the policies vary from airline to airline and need to be standardised.

Outspoken TV personality Katie Hopkins has called on airlines to charge a ‘fat tax’ for overweight plane passengers.

She recently told MailOnline: ‘I've thought this for a long time. It seems crazy that I'm charged to check in a bag whereas some 20-stone idiot next to me with hand luggage isn't charged anything even though they're carrying as much extra weight. I think that's very fair.'