Many airlines around the world apply weighing of carry-on luggage and passengers, with the reason of ensuring "safety of flight operations".
Passengers flying on domestic Korean Air flights at Gimpo Airport in South Korea may be asked to step on a scale with their luggage before boarding their flights starting August 28. For international flights from Incheon, the measure will be implemented starting September 8. Passenger weight data will be kept confidential, and overweight passengers will not have to pay extra. However, the announcement has been met with a backlash from the public.
The airline representative said that the passenger weighing is done in accordance with the law and applies to all Korean airlines. Korean Air also said that Korean law requires airlines to weigh passengers and carry-on luggage at least once every five years because this is "very important for the safety of flight operations".
A woman hands her bag to a staff member to weigh her before a flight in Auckland, New Zealand on May 29. Photo: AP
Vance Hilderman, CEO of aviation safety company Afuzion, has a different opinion. Modern aircraft are designed to adjust flight parameters to accommodate changes in weight and other factors. Safety is not affected even when there are more heavy passengers.
The CEO added that the significant weight increase of each passenger is “nothing” compared to the weight of fuel, cargo and the plane itself. “Fuel weighs 20 times more than the weight of passengers,” he said.
Shem Malmquist, a lecturer at the University of Florida College of Aeronautical Technology, said random weighing "is a good idea". "People are getting heavier. 300 people heavier than average can make an aircraft significantly heavier. Meanwhile, all the performance calculations including runway length, altitude, obstacle clearance, landing distance, altitude all depend on weight and other things," Malmquist said.
Hilderman agrees that people are getting heavier but passengers are also getting younger. This will offset the average increase in human weight.
Air New Zealand weighs passengers in June at Auckland International Airport, New Zealand. Video: YouTube/CNA
Jose Silva, associate professor at the School of Engineering at RMIT University in Australia, said airlines were reluctant to weigh passengers because it was a sensitive topic.
Still, many airlines are weighing passengers. Air New Zealand started weighing passengers in June for safety and fuel efficiency reasons.
Finnair did the same in 2017, and Hawaiian Air did so on flights between Honolulu and American Samoa. Hilderman said the FAA said in 2019 that airlines could weigh passengers.
In Europe, where carriers follow European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) regulations, nearly 23,000 passengers were weighed in 2008 and 2009. A 2022 EASA report also found that average passenger weight has “increased slightly” since 2009. The average male passenger now weighs 82kg and the average female passenger weighs 68kg.
Hilderman said that regular weighing of passengers and other items on board can help airlines determine the correct weight to balance the amount of cargo they are carrying. The weighing is also a way for EASA to protect passengers. They want to point out that passengers are getting bigger, so airlines need to design seats and aisles to accommodate them.
Passenger body shape is a controversial topic. Large passengers accuse airlines of discriminating against them in terms of aisle and seat size. Smaller passengers complain that they are being encroached upon by sitting next to larger people.
Aviation consultant Nick Gausling says while other industries are under pressure to prioritise customer experience, with airlines, consumers “have very few alternatives”.
Tigress Osborn, CEO of NAAFA, an organization that advocates for overweight people in the US, said most major airlines give overweight passengers three options: pay a higher fare for a larger seat, buy a second seat, or stay home. "Fat people deserve to travel just like everyone else. We pay taxes to support the airline industry, so we deserve to be provided with safe, comfortable seats at every price point," Osborn said.
Hilderman says airlines could sell second seats to overweight passengers at a steep discount or reserve special seats for them to address the problem.
As for whether airlines could increase seat size, Hilderman said it was “theoretically possible” but not practical because the width of the fuselage is fixed. Increasing the size would reduce the number of seats, make the aisles narrower, and increase ticket prices by 20-25%. Meanwhile, most people don’t care about the type of plane they fly, the pitch or width of the seat. They only look at the price. If we were to build wider-bodied planes to replace the entire fleet, it would take 20 years.
Arnold Barnett, professor of statistics and management science at MIT Sloan School of Management, said most passengers “are willing to tolerate the current seat size in exchange for a lower fare.” If seating changes and fares increase, travel will be difficult for budget-conscious passengers.
“For many people, a cramped seat on an airplane is better than a bus,” says Barnett.
Anh Minh (According to CNBC )
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