Fear of flying

We’ve all heard there is no free lunch.

Now, there is apparently no free legroom either.

Starting later this month, Continental Airlines plans to charge extra for coach customers who want a seat with more legroom.

And it won’t be cheap, either.

Extra legroom on a Houston-New York flight will set you back 59 bucks.

Good grief! And you get only 7 more inches of space for laying out all that cash. It’s not like you could camp out or anything.

What could be worse? Try some of these other proposed extra charges that airlines are considering:

-- Permission to unbuckle your seat belt after takeoff, $5.

-- 10 extra sheets of toilet paper, $10.

-- Plastic knife and fork to eat your in-flight meal with, $25.

-- Seating change after finding yourself between two 300-pound passengers, $50.

-- Seating change after finding yourself next to a passenger who gets airsick a lot, $100.

-- Parachute to rent when plane has lost all power and is falling like a brick, $1 million.

… And no, they don’t take checks for that last one.