You have to jump through a lot of hoops before ever stepping foot on a commercial airplane.
Getting on a plane is already a LOT
First, you’ve got to check in to your flight (although, you can do that online these days) and hope it doesn’t get delayed or canceled. You’ll also need to take off your shoes, your coats, and electronics just to be herded through long security lines (although there are ways to avoid that, too). Then you have to wait for your flight to board and the chaos that usually brings. But would you agree to do one more thing before stepping on an airplane? For example, would you agree to be weighed?
One airline, Finnair, is doing just that. Yep, according to CNN, Finnair has started to WEIGH passengers before they get on the plane. But wait… hear us out, because this isn’t what you think. First, they’re not weighing ALL passengers. Those that are getting weighed are voluntarily doing so.
©Finnair
But there’s more because this weighing isn’t to determine passenger weight per se. Passengers are being weighed WITH their luggage at the departure gate to help the airline figure out proper weight estimates for planes before takeoff. See? It’s for science! Again, it’s only for those who consent to being weighed and the data is not linked to each passenger, keeping it anonymous. The airline is merely looking at the numbers.
©Finnair
Right now, the trial is only happening at Finnair’s Helsinki Airport hub, but believe it or not, there have been a LOT of volunteers agreeing to be weighed. Finnair started earlier this week, but in just a few days, more than 800 people had already agreed to be weighed. Obviously, Finnair was “positively surprised by the number of volunteers.”
©Finnair
“We have communicated about this survey to Finnair customers via our social media channels and our mobile app, and the first volunteers were proactively asking to take part even before the equipment was set up,” Päivyt Tallqvist, Finnair’s senior vice president of communications, said.
Finnair will collect the data and use it to figure out the average weight of passengers and their luggage “for the purpose of aircraft balance and performance calculations that are needed for the safe operation of flights.” Like we said, it’s for science!
Air travel
Air New Zealand announced in 2023 that they would also begin weighing passengers before boarding, so it’s possible this could become a trend.
Stay tuned to DFB for more.
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Spirit Airline’s flights out of Tweed New Haven airport closely monitors weight because of the short runway at Tweed. And there are times when planes must go with empty seats.