Airlines (Commonwealth Union)_ Finnair Airlines, has announced it will begin weighing passengers as well as their carry-on luggage in order to better estimate the plane’s weight before take-off.
The controversial move comes from Finnish carrier Finnair, who informed media they began ‘measuring’ passengers departing from Helsinki on Monday.
Finnish carrier Finnair has announced their plans to have weigh-ins for February, April and May of this year while they will also take a note of age, gender and class of travel.
Finnair spokeswoman Kaisa Tikkanen said on Wednesday (7 February) that so far, over 500 volunteer customers had participated in the weigh-ins.
They said in a statement that flight balance estimates require airlines to know the ‘weight of the aircraft itself and the weight of fuel, checked baggage and cargo, water tanks, onboard catering, and of course customers’.
Satu Munnukka, head of ground processes at Finnair said that the collected data was not linked in any way to the customer’s personal data.
She assured that you can participate in the study with peace of mind since only the customer service agent working at the measuring point can see the total weight.
Finnair, which services the UK with budget flights to and from Finland, noted in a statement that airlines work out the weight of the plane, its interior and passengers on board to balance the flight and make for safe transit. It said that Airlines may use average weights provided by aviation authorities assumed to be 88kg or collect their own data.
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Now Finnair has announced that they will only weigh their passengers on a voluntary basis.
Communications director Päivyt Tallqvist told The Huffington Post that this was part of having a very strong safety culture in the organisation.
“We want to see if the data we’re using for calculations is accurate and stated that they are used for every flight, and that they were important for the aircraft’s performance.
The company told The Huffington Post that passengers would stand on a scale in all their clothes and with their carry-on luggage at the same time to get a combined reading.
Finnair are not just interested in body weight, but the whole package. Päivyt Tallqvist, Communications director told the outlet that Finns tend to bring a lot more weight onto the plane in colder months as they come prepared with thick, heavy coats. He said they wanted to see if the data we’re using for calculations was accurate since they are used for every flight, and they were important for the aircraft’s performance.
Finnair were not the first airline to take the initiative and measure the weight of passengers themselves.
Korea’s largest airline, Korean Air, announced in August last year that it would start weighing passengers at Gimpo Airport on domestic routes and Incheon Airport on international flights for a short period through September.
The company said the move was aimed at reducing wasted fuel and helping to more accurately estimate the weight of the plane.
An easyJet flight from Lanzarote to Liverpool asked 19 passengers to get off the plane because it was deemed ‘too heavy to take off’ a month before.
A spokesperson wrote confirming the incident : ‘easyJet can confirm that 19 passengers on flight EZY3364 from Lanzarote to Liverpool volunteered to travel on a later flight as a result of the aircraft being over the weight limits for the weather conditions.
He stated that this was a routine operational decision in these circumstances and weight restrictions were in place for all airlines for safety reasons.
The spokesperson went on to state that in the event a plane was found to be too heavy to take off, passengers were asked to volunteer to transfer to a later flight free of charge, and were provided with compensation in line with regulations.
Airlines offer similar compensation when they oversell tickets for flights and request some passengers to volunteer to reschedule.
According to a crew member, citing easyJet in the case of the Lanzarote to Liverpool flights, passengers were offered ‘up to €500 per passenger.
In 2010, 58% of Britons said they wanted overweight passengers to pay more to fly, according to research from Holiday Extras.
Some 45 per cent believed it made no difference to them if an airline started charging extra based on weight, and six per cent even said the measures would actively encourage them to fly more often.
In 2017, a poll by jetcost.co.uk revealed nearly 90% Britons believed overweight passengers should pay more to fly.
Nearly 80 per cent also said they thought ‘plus-sized zones’ should be introduced on flights.
