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Transportation News

Air New Zealand To Weigh Passengers Before They Board the Airplane (cnn.com) 150

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority is asking that its national airline weigh passengers departing on international flights from Auckland International Airport through July 2, 2023. From a report: The program, which Air New Zealand calls a passenger weight survey, is a way to gather data on the weight load and distribution for planes, the airline said. "We weigh everything that goes on the aircraft -- from the cargo to the meals onboard, to the luggage in the hold," Alastair James, the airline's load control improvement specialist said in a statement. "For customers, crew and cabin bags, we use average weights, which we get from doing this survey." Still, weight is a personal thing that not everyone wishes to disclose. In order to protect individuals' privacy, the airline says it has made the data anonymous.
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Air New Zealand To Weigh Passengers Before They Board the Airplane More

Air New Zealand To Weigh Passengers Before They Board the Airplane

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  • Samoans (Score:3)

    by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @01:46PM (#63561779) Homepage

    There's a lot of Samoans over there. If you put them in the same seating zone it could upset the trim and use a lot more fuel.

    In the USA there's so many fatties it all averages out.

    • Bad trim is a real danger at takeoff, too.

    • I thought you meant Sarumans. Saruman is not that heavy. But for hobbits, they should watch out for Will "Flourdumpling" Whitfoot trying to board the plane.

    • "In the USA there's so many fatties it all averages out." I did a long bike ride over the weekend, and passed by several campgrounds along the road. Each site, and I mean every single one, had overweight to morbidly obese people in them. Even the children. It's sad to see how fat people are getting lately. Ever see pics from 50 years ago? People were much thinner then. 50 years later, everyone is just ballooned out. (I admit, I am overweight too, but only by about 10lbs)

      • Re:Samoans (Score:5, Insightful)

        by kryliss ( 72493 ) on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @03:20PM (#63562135)

        It doesn't help that 95% of the food in the grocery stores are designed to make people fat and has so many health risks due to all the chemicals in them. Not everyone can be a farmer or has lots of land and time to grow their own food. We have become a consumption society and consumption is always up for sale.

        • It doesn't help that 95% of the food in the grocery stores are designed to make people fat and has so many health risks due to all the chemicals in them. Not everyone can be a farmer or has lots of land and time to grow their own food.

          It's STILL easy to shop in a modern grocery store to be healthy.

          Just stick to shopping the outside perimeter of the store...there you will find fresh produce, meats, etc...

          No need to shop the interior aisles, except for the occasion to hit the spice aisle, and maybe get som

          • It's a bummer but it does seem that all pre-prepared food is unhealthy. Every time I go on a business trip and have to eat at restaurants consistently, I gain a few pounds. All the food is too rich and over-seasoned.

            • Restaurant food is mostly oversized portions. I think if you ate it and left maybe half of it, or took it with you and made a 2nd meal out of it at home, the weight gain would disappear. Mostly portions of everything is too big.

              • I get Chinese a lot, because for ~$10 I get 3 meals worth of food. But I know a lot of people who'll eat that in a single meal, then go get desert.

                But otherwise, yeah, I mostly perimeter shop the stores. Cook my own food.

                Oh: Another thing to be careful of: Anything "fat free". If it doesn't have any fat, odds are it has way too much sugar, which we've found out to be worse than fat for you, and still not fill you up properly, so you stay hungry and eat even more.

                The old, old theory for low-fat stuff wa

            • It's a bummer but it does seem that all pre-prepared food is unhealthy. Every time I go on a business trip and have to eat at restaurants consistently, I gain a few pounds. All the food is too rich and over-seasoned.

              I personally think the portion size has more to do with it than the ingredients.

            • That's the secret to restaurant quality food - salt, sugar and butter (the latter not necessarily being unhealthy). Eating out is a special occasion for most people so the focus tips towards tastiness rather than health.

              There are also a lot of epigenetic factors. If the current younger generation grew up eating like people in the 50s they still wouldn't look like people from the 50s. Not going to cite references here...

        • I got old and fat.
          I ate less and exercised more.
          Still old, not fat.

          I don't eat particularly well but I do know I can CHOOSE when to put down the fucking fork. Just because something may be mildly difficult is no excuse for not doing it. Eaters have agency.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mad7777 ( 946676 )

          Oh no! Not chemicals!!!
          I heard they put dihydrogen monoxide in nearly everything these days.

  • "It's a cookbook!" https://media.giphy.com/media/... [giphy.com]

  • Not sure why this hasn't been done all along.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Joey Vegetables ( 686525 ) on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @01:51PM (#63561795) Journal

    Knowing the weight (total weight, and distribution by seat location) is actually quite important for safety.

    This article [pilotteacher.com] explains one of the rare but not unheard of consequences if this is not known, or is "known" but incorrect. In the particular case noted, the plane still took off safely, but with much less of a safety margin than it would have had. But there have been serious incidents [mlit.go.jp] where incorrect or incomplete weight distribution information has been part of the cause.

    I say this as someone who is moderately overweight myself (and used to be MUCH heavier). I'm sure the Intarwebs already know my current weight, how it fluctuates through the day, how heavy my dumps are, and probably what color too. I don't mind if the airline has that information too, if it means the others on the plan and I will be measurably safer.

    • Can't this be sensed by load cells in the landing gear ?

      • If it's done that way and it turns out you need to re-balance the weight then it's too late, all the luggage and passengers are already aboard.

        This needs to be done at the airport before boarding, but it also means people shouldn't be able to pick their seats, only preferences (window, aisle, etc). The software will calculate and try to balance everything.

        • too meany fat people in 1st class DOWN GRADE DOWN GRADE (NO REFUND)

        • " people shouldn't be able to pick their seats"

          Well, that's a lot of fun. Not. I'll just continue my aversion to things airplane, and drive wherever I'm going. Latest iteration was almost another 2500 miles, since I saw and enjoyed the Indy 500 so much last Sunday, I was thinking of maybe attending the Detroit race. No-go, its sold out, so the 2500 mile round trip that would have taken 2 days each way from Texas, after I pick my own seat of "left front" in my Ford Edge ST, will not be happening. (Bum

      • It is done that way on some aircraft. On several occasions I have been on small commuter aircraft where the crew re-arranged the passengers after boarding was completed.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by v1 ( 525388 )

        Can't this be sensed by load cells in the landing gear ?

        They need a higher precision than that is probably capable of providing.

      • Can't this be sensed by load cells in the landing gear ?

        Unless you have people board one at a time, how could statistics be gathered for age, sex, ... to use to update the "average weights" for different groups? All you'd know is a general average -- total weight / number pf people.

      • Can't this be sensed by load cells in the landing gear ?

        The total weight yes, but not the detailed distribution of weight since you only have three points of contact. Doing this for a short period to establish new average values for passenger weight seems like a good idea but I would question the need for it on an ongoing basis since once you have averages for large planes the sample size should be big enough that individual weights should not be needed.

        • Doing this for a short period to establish new average values for passenger weight seems like a good idea

          Which is exactly what they're doing it. They have to do it every 5 years.

        • I guess the specific weight can vary greatly, after all it is Air New Zealand.
          400 fat Aussies versus 400 slim Japanese Girls might make a difference.

          Considering that every extra ton of fuel, costs fuel to carry around, it might make sense to reduce that, especially if we take into account the huge amount of flights and the total distances.

    • I once had a regional turboprop connecting flight delayed with seat changes for weight and balance, because 2 Native families boarded with annual allotments of something like 400 pounds of frozen Alaska salmon each.
    • a girlfriend of mine and I once boarded a small, regional jet and the pilot asked for people in various seats if they would switch seats, apparently there was a load sensing device on the landing gear and he was using that to balance out the aircraft.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Speaking of dumps, I wonder how much the airline could save on fuel if everyone used the bathroom before take off.

    • I once almost got bumped from a 9-seater in Butte, MT because of a combination of altitude, outside heat and weight. When they looked around for a way to lighten the plane they eyed me. I am not small. I told them I wasn't spending the night in Butte.

    • Here's a fatal accident in the US from 2003 where all 21 people aboard died, that wouldn't have happened if the passenger weights had not been underestimated. Note that there was a second factor (elevator control cable), but if either factor had not occurred, the crash would have been averted.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      Although the pilots had totaled up the ostensible take-off weight of the aircraft before the flight and determined it to be within limits, the plane was actually overloaded and out of balance due to the use of FAA-approved (but actually incorrect) passenger weight estimates. When checked, the NTSB found that the actual weight of an average passenger was more than 20 pounds (9 kg) greater than estimated.

      After checking the actual weight of baggage retrieved from the crash site and passengers (based on information from next-of-kin and the medical examiner), the aircraft was found to be actually 580 lb (264 kg) above its maximum allowable take-off weight, with its center of gravity 5% to the rear of the allowable limit. Neither problem alone would have caused the loss of control, which explains why it had previously been flown without incident.

  • Privacy (Score:3, Informative)

    by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @01:52PM (#63561805) Homepage

    “We know stepping on the scales can be daunting. We want to reassure our customers there is no visible display anywhere. No one can see your weight, not even us,” James said.

    This is silly.

    People have eyes, that baggy kaftan isn't fooling anybody. Your weight is about as private as your height when you're out in public.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Xenx ( 2211586 )
      Sure, you can get some generalizations. The overly skinny, or obese. But, you can't really tell how much people weigh from a visual inspection. As an example, people usually underestimate my weight by a good 50lbs. The people worried about their weight are probably going to be in that grey area, not the extremes.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • I'm fairly sure if we look at skewing in weight, varying mass in muscle-types will not be the salient factor. People who cannot see their genitals while seated aren't overburdened with muscle, also visually easy to discern.

        • You meant standing, or?

          Usually when I'm seated I definitely could not see my "balls" 2cm fat is enough to hide them. Or do you have some odd body and conclude from that perspective?

          Regarding muscles and their weight: I suggest to get some muscles. E.g. you could go for some stomach muscles, too. Then let's see how "heavy" that is.

          Muscles are 2 times as heavy than fat, minimum.

          • Try leaning a forward a little. Outside of unusually muscly people and the very fat, it shouldn't be difficult to see your generals.

            Being unusually muscly is not a significant factor in this topic.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      They sell shoes with discrete heels for men who are concerned about their height. Clothes can hide a lot of weight. Clearly people do care about keeping those stats secret, even if people can make an educated guess.

    • A lot of data that is obviously visible is considered (protected) Personal Information such as your name, your face (picture), eye colour, GPS location. Weight and height are mentioned in a legal analysis https://www.compliancejunction... [compliancejunction.com] (here for EU). It seems California's CPRA offers similar protections in general https://termly.io/resources/ar... [termly.io] I can't find an explicit reference to body weight in the CPRA, but for the US system such a detail might be up to courts.

    • Nevertheless weight is difficult to estimate.
      I have a friend who looks slighty overweight, because he has a bit belly fat, and an unusual round/fat face for an European.
      But he is tall, too. So his legs and rest looks relatively slim.

      To lazy to calculate it into what ever kind of pound you are using: he is roughly 200cm tall and weights roughly 140kg. For those who are not used to it: I'm 170cm and my weight is roughly 60kg. He is more than 2 times as heavy than I am, but only looks like 80kg/90kg - he is ba

  • I took a peek at the actual article and not only are they weighing you, but also your carry-on (in a separate measurement).

    I can see people would really not like this but people also have a long history of submitting to just about any inconvenience to enable air travel, so I think this will stay.

    I personally would not mind, except that I have at times had carry-on that greatly exceeded the supposed carry-on weight limit (easy with camera gear) so I really hope this is just for statistical use and not going

    • There's special "airport jackets" with enough pockets to hold 15kg of stuff.

    • new rule any force pushed to checked luggage is fully covered for damage / loss

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kmoser ( 1469707 )

      I can see people would really not like this but people also have a long history of submitting to just about any inconvenience to enable air travel, so I think this will stay.

      Not submitting means not flying, so not really a viable option in many cases.

      Regardless, your weight is but one of many metrics already being collected by the airlines (not to mention government), such as name, DOB, gender, address, and email. If you're fighting against being weighed, you're fighting the wrong battle.

    • Air New Zealand does weigh carryons, yes. Or they did a few years ago.

  • That's sensible (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @01:56PM (#63561831)

    I mean, ponder this: A person weighing 100 pounds with a luggage weighing 50 pounds gets to pay a fine but a person weighing 200 pounds with a luggage weighing 15 doesn't?

    Why would the airline care whether it's the weight of you or your luggage that they have to transport?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bert64 ( 520050 )

      The airline doesn't, and they would be much happier charging by weight and volume.. Problem is if they start charging larger passengers more they will face discrimination lawsuits.

      It's not just fat passengers, height and muscle mass also contribute to overall weight.

      • The airline doesn't, and they would be much happier charging by weight and volume.. Problem is if they start charging larger passengers more they will face discrimination lawsuits.

        How is it "discrimination"? They charge freight by weight.

        • I wish you were right.
          I wish this were normal.
          Unfortunately, everything gets skewed towards the interests of various minorities...

          • Unfortunately, everything gets skewed towards the interests of various minorities...

            In the USA, overweight people are the majority by a rather large margin. Less than 29% of Americans have a proper body weight, so they're the ones who are actually the minority.

          • Obese people are unfortunately far from being a minority.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          For reasons I won't get into, we have decided to accommodate people with disabilities. Even if they need to take extra weight on the plane, like a wheelchair or medical equipment, they don't pay any extra.

          Weight isn't such a big deal for airlines anyway. Baggage is up to a maximum weight, determined by what the machines can handle. They weigh it, but don't change per gram.

          Fuel consumption is affected far more by weather and things like how long it takes them to get a landing slot.

          • Weight isn't such a big deal for airlines anyway. Baggage is up to a maximum weight, determined by what the machines can handle. They weigh it, but don't change per gram.

            Then it could be a simple thing like $X for the ticket(pays for most of the cost) with $Y per KG or such. $Y being much less, of course.

          • Could you please inform the air freight carriers that literally charge by the gram for the stuff I want to send overseas?

            By the way, no, you cannot send yourself as freight. I have checked. Yes, it would be cheaper than the seat, and depending on how you build the box, you'd also have more legroom than in the average sardine class seat. Sadly, their insurance doesn't cover live freight other than non-human animals and I also don't want to spend 2 weeks of my vacation in quarantine, so unfortunately I cannot

          • Sorry, that is complete nonsense.
            The main factor in fuel consumption in an air plane is weight.
            That is why you get 20kg free, and for everything on top: you have to pay.

      • >"Problem is if they start charging larger passengers more they will face discrimination lawsuits."

        Women-only gym = discrimination
        Senior discount = discrimination
        Military discount = discrimination
        No children on this ride = discrimination
        No shirt no service = discrimination
        Member-only discount card = discrimination
        Handicapped parking spot = discrimination
        Credit/debit card sales only = discrimination

        Just saying.

      • Problem is if they start charging larger passengers more they will face discrimination lawsuits.
        They might face lawsuits, but no real consequences.
        After all a heavier passenger costs more fuel to move.
        No "discrimination" happening.

    • I mean, ponder this: A person weighing 100 pounds with a luggage weighing 50 pounds gets to pay a fine but a person weighing 200 pounds with a luggage weighing 15 doesn't?

      RTFA and you will find that this has nothing to do with pricing. The agents who ask passengers to step on the scales don't see the weight.

      It's a survey. Also, the airline knows how much your checked baggage weighs and, guess what, they can add the numbers together.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Luggage weight limits aren't due to fuel cost or anything like that. They exist because there is a limit to how much weight the baggage handlers and their equipment can deal with, without special measures. If your bag is overweight, it has to be loaded and unloaded manually and/or separately.

      For carry on the overhead bins have a maximum weight they can accommodate, and there are issues with crew having to handle very heavy bags, and the danger of them falling.

      There must be a weight limit, and maximum width,

      • I'm sure that's a reason as well but there's absolutely an impact on fuel, flight characteristics, and there's simply a hard limit on takeoff weight so you need a limit on luggage weight anyway.

        For a 737-800 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737_Next_Generation)

        79,000kg max takeoff weight
        - 41400kg empty weight
        - 20000kg fuel (apprx)
        =17,600kg for passengers, crew and cargo.

        For 189 passengers and 5 crew, that's just 90kg per person total. That's very approximate using wikipedia numbers but you get

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by stikves ( 127823 )

      Luggage is a different service.

      Workers actually wanted limits on baggage weights. It is a workplace hazard: https://www.burakofflaw.com/wo... [burakofflaw.com]

      The fees are a deterrent, so that average airport employee can finish their day without pulling a muscle. Otherwise, as you said, a younger, lightweight person could arrive with a 150lbs luggage as part of their "allowance".

      • The extra fees for luggage are not for a single super heavy piece of luggage, facepalm.
        They are for your total luggage, facepalm.
        You pay them because it COSTS MONEY TO CARRY THEM, facepalm.

        Idiots all around me.
        When can I live in peace with no idiots around me?
        When?

  • No such thing... (Score:3)

    by haggie ( 957598 ) on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @02:00PM (#63561851)

    The concept of "anonymous data" has been widely and soundly debunked. Anyone who claims it should immediately be deemed to be a.) lying b.) grossly incompetent c.0 both.

  • As time goes on (Score:3)

    by nightflameauto ( 6607976 ) on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @02:06PM (#63561889)

    Step one, collect the data.

    Step two, monetize the data. I look for a not too distant moment when they start charging per KG over the "mean weight expectation" or some such market-speak.

    Step three, untrained morons dying trying to cut weight by following fighter-style regimens before check-in.

    Seems like the perfect plan to me. I'm all for it.

    • step four (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Petr Blazek ( 8018844 )

      ...step four: people start realizing that being obese has VISIBLE/IMMEDIATE consequences.
      You know, health issues are not deterring as they (i) only grow gradually, and (ii) can be attributed (often misattributed) to some other causes.
      But an obesity surcharge could really help start thinking...
      (Yes, I know that a certain proportion of obese people are victims of some disease. However, the proportion is by no means significant.)

  • Done all the time (Score:5, Informative)

    by gavron ( 1300111 ) on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @02:34PM (#63561997)

    OB DISC: I'm an FAA certificated commercial helicopter pilot.

    Weight and balance ("W&B") is critical to everything from aircraft (fixed-wing, rotary-wing, etc.) to UAVs (can't put a 4lb camera on a DJI "drone") to even small cars like the Mercedes Smart Car (so smart it's discontinued).

    Everything from takeoff speed, climb rate, landing distance, flight range, ALL OF IT is based on total weight transported, and yeah when you have 160-300 passengers each of which weighs a bit differently than average human numbers it's TONS of dead weight that must be accounted for.

    In the commercial helicopter world we have two options. One - we ask the passenger for their fully-laden weight (including clothes, shoes, belt, pocket stuff, phone, camera, water bottle, hat, glasses, etc.) Passengers lie. So option two is we have them step on a scale. Some people don't like that and consider it intrusive. Air tour companies in Las Vegas are a bit more clever... having "special tiles" passengers stand on during check-in. The tile conceals the scale. The computer records the weight at check in.

    Good for Air New Zealand for doing this. Likely they will save fuel, make operations more efficient, and this Earth will be greener. Maybe this will convince the flying public to quit lying about their weight. I'm pretty sure my significant other is not a Size Zero, but I'm not calling her out on it. Air NZ, can you help?

    E

    • Airline should charge by the weight of what they carry, be that passengers or cargo. Someone is bound to get upset by this but why should lighter cargo and passengers subsidize heavier loads?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      What happened to the passenger who were too heavy? Did the passenger know in advance about this hidden scale?

  • Remove your shoes. Take your keys out of your pocket. Step on the scale?

    Why? This is just a stupid comment in the article. Obviously, the airline does NOT want you to take off your shoes or empty your pockets before being weighed.

  • As a share holder (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ukoda ( 537183 ) on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @02:36PM (#63562007) Homepage
    As a share holder and frequent flier on Air NZ I don't think this is a good idea. Yes knowing weight on an aircraft is important and smaller the aircraft the more important, but... People are sensitive about their weight and this will make the unpleasant and time consuming experience of flying more unpleasant and slower. If all airlines were doing it they could get away with it but if only Air NZ are going to do it then it will have a real effect on ticket sales and my guess is it will have a significant effect. If I had to guess about 10 to 30% of sales will be lost to other airlines. Just what I need with their under performing shares.

    A better option would be to add load cells to a distributed selection of rows of seats and maybe relate that with number of adults and children in the seats, but not to individual passengers. You could then get meaningful data without invading passenger privacy.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      If all airlines were doing it they could get away with it but if only Air NZ are going to do it

      EASA updated their standards in 2022 and the FAA is going to require all American airlines (or all airlines flying in the US?) do so every 36 months, or actually weigh all passengers on every flight. Air New Zealand seems to do this regularly as well. There are stories from 2021.

  • while I'm sure this will trigger a few people (Score:4, Insightful)

    by v1 ( 525388 ) on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @03:04PM (#63562097) Homepage Journal

    I personally don't care. I think it makes perfect sense to charge BY THE POUND when flying people around. Weigh the luggage, weigh the people. UPS/FedEx/USPS, they all weigh my packages and charge me accordingly. They also measure the size, and that factors in. Now, relatively speaking, it doesn't cost a lot more to fly a heavier person. The plane's already pretty heavy, and your added weight is really only a very small fraction. Maybe you cost them another buck in fuel, it's not a lot. It may not even worth their bother to try to scale ticket prices relative to passenger weight. Maybe someone can do some math with some reliable numbers, I'd be interested to see how it pans out.

    But rough weight is public knowledge, you're not going to hide it. There's no point to being worried that someone's going to get an exact number on you. They've got a very legitimate reason for more accurately knowing your weight, and you have no reasonable excuse to keep it from them while engaging their services. If that triggers you, see a psychologist - maybe they can help you with your triggers.

    • >"I think it makes perfect sense to charge BY THE POUND when flying people around"

      Well, they weren't talking about charging people more in this case, just for balancing load. But I don't think that would be outrageous.

      >"Now, relatively speaking, it doesn't cost a lot more to fly a heavier person. The plane's already pretty heavy, and your added weight is really only a very small fraction"

      I don't know. Maybe you are right and it is too small to matter. But if it were significant, a surcharge might

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tom ( 822 )

      It may not even worth their bother to try to scale ticket prices relative to passenger weight. Maybe someone can do some math with some reliable numbers, I'd be interested to see how it pans out.

      This answer: https://www.quora.com/Airlines... [quora.com]

      says that each extra kg costs on average $3 to $5. So yes, that 23 kg of luggage actually matters, and yes, the difference between an average passenger and an obese one does as well. 80 kg vs. 150 kg would be $200 to $350 difference.

      That's a rough estimate based on a single answer, and probably widely inaccurate, but if just the ballpark is right then yes, it does make a difference.

  • When they start weighing everyone on the way in and then in the way out, thatâ(TM)s the time to get worried.
  • So hot right now.

  • All they've done here (Score:3)

    by A10Mechanic ( 1056868 ) on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @03:50PM (#63562197)
    They have ensured that my spouse will never ever let me book her a ticket on that airline. That also rules me out, because we must fly together. They can anonymize the data all they want, she's not gonna step on the scales...

  • Far Beyond Gone (Score:3)

    by organgtool ( 966989 ) on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @04:03PM (#63562233)
    I'm not thrilled with this, but in the US we already require people to get into a machine at the security checkpoint that allows some perv in a hidden room to see the outline of our naked bodies (or feel us up in public if we don't want to go into the machine). By comparison, hopping onto a scale with no public-facing display (although I don't necessarily believe the airline's claim that the employees can't see the measurements made by the scale) is far less of a privacy invasion.
  • They will start charging extra per lbs.
  • Cape Air asks people's weights without a scale to help balance the weight load of the plane to help safe fuel.

  • Airports is where they go through your papers, look through all your belongings, film you, track you, pat you down and now put you into a machine that show you naked. If you cross a border, you also get asked all sorts of personal questions. They had thermal cameras to detect signs of fever even before covid, during the pandemic you could also get a stick in your nose and throat as a bonus. If you are part of the chosen ones, you may get your electronic devices searched too.

    So yeah, walking on a scale that

    • Of course, all of what you said is completely irrelevant to what's going on.

      NO individual weights are being collected. Air New Zealand ISN'T doing this for billing purposes. It's the NZ CAA (the equivalent of the US FAA) that is attempting to update the averages that they permit airlines to use as an alternative to actually weighing the pax load.

      For instance, I believe that the current FAA average weight guideline is 190 pounds in summer and 195 in winter. (I may have the exact figures wrong.) Every now

  • This is not the story to get upset about how your weight is an intimate personal detail (despite being obvious to everyone looking at you).

    This is to update the average value used in place of the actual passenger weight. Average weight of people changes from decade to decade, so it needs updating.

    As for your personal weight - in a time where airline companies squeeze for pennies by reducing hand luggage from 10 kg to 8 kg and charging extra for carry-on which used to be included - it's only a matter of time

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