World News

They weigh my carry on and complain when it's 1kg over, yet some people weighing twice as much as me get on the plane. Makes no sense.

Just weigh and charge people with their baggage. Privacy and embarrassment about mass can be blamed on the bag.

This will add a new terror to air travel

From an engineering point of view it makes really good sense because the better you can estimate a plane's weight the better you can maximize efficiency blah blah blah. But these are humans not numbers, and it's a bit rude..

I'm comfortable in my weight. However, my girlfriend is not. We won't be flying any airline that weighs us. That would be a small crisis for her.

It's a slippery slope. Soon they'll have two separate queues, and one of them will be called "fatties".

I welcome it. I'm harassed for the 1kg excess in my bag. If you're not charging others more, I'd like not to be treated like that. Give me a discount then for every kilogram I weigh less by.

On September 16, it became evident that airlines were becoming more interested in passengers’ weight. Prominent carriers like Korean Air and Air New Zealand introduced a rather unconventional rule, requiring passengers to step on scales before boarding their flights. [...] This novel approach in the aviation industry has gained momentum, with the objective of maintaining optimal aircraft weight and thereby reducing fuel consumption. The primary goal of this unconventional procedure is to precisely determine the standard weight of passengers and averages. This, in turn, aids in accurately calculating the distribution of weight on the aircraft, resulting in fuel savings. [...] The ultimate objective is to ensure that each flight adheres to strict parameters set by the maximum take-off weight of the aircraft, thereby enhancing safety. However, for many, this emphasis on safety might feel like an intrusion into their privacy.

I didn't know that this was a factor that they needed to consider. The privacy aspect is real, and we need regulations on storage and deletion of this data after each flight. I can already see this info being sold to advertisers.

On the discomfort side, couldn't they have the collection and recording happen in the background? If no other passengers or staff can see the numbers, there's less of a chance of someone feeling uncomfortable with the process.

This is all assuming that this is actually necessary or helpful.

I mean they do need to balance the plane so it makes sense, another thing they could do is eliminate first class seats and spread the seating out a little more so they can relocate passengers easier.

This isn't new in the airline world.

I believe there is a Tongan airline that has been doing it for a few years already

This doesn't sound like they're charging extra if you're over a certain weight, which is what a lot of people here seem to be assuming. Its data collection for future designs.

People are aware that you get charged for overweight baggage for health and safety reasons, right? Anything over about 20 kilos is too heavy for a single person to safely handle so they have to get two people to do it, which costs more time and money. I would be very genuinely surprised if a few dozen more kilos from overweight baggage and people would be enough to seriously impact a plane's flight unless you're on a small town hopper

That is so racist against Americans, lol

I'm not ok with it but I think airlines should make bigger seats available. make it an option to book these chairs , no weighting needed, but I rather pay for a bigger seat than book 2 seats and the 2 seats not honoured when boarding the plane.