a Airline It announced that it will start weighing passengers with hand luggage. the reason? It is best to estimate the weight of the aircraft before take-off. This controversial move comes from the Finnish company Veneer, which told the media that it had begun “measuring” passengers departing Helsinki on Monday. “So far more than 500 volunteer clients have participated,” spokeswoman Kaisa Tikkanen said.

A passenger tries to enter the cockpit and makes an emergency landing in Greece on a flight to Tel Aviv

Motives

Finnair, which serves the UK with low-cost flights to and from Finland, said in a statement that airlines calculate the weight of the plane, its interior and the passengers on board to balance the flight and ensure safe transit. Airlines can use the average weights provided by aviation authorities – which is assumed to be 88kg – or collect their own data.

Privacy issues

Finnair assured potential travelers that the data collected was not linked “in any way” to customers' personal data in their statement. “Only the customer service representative working at the measuring point can see the total weight, so you can participate in the study with peace of mind,” said Sato Monoka, head of ground operations at Finnair. But some social media users were “horrified by the announcement”, which they say will embarrass overweight passengers, describing the plan as “cruel”.

Arguing

People said the news meant they “won't be flying on Finnair anytime soon”, while others welcomed the plan as “a way to solve the obesity crisis”. One user criticized the airline, saying he would not fly with Finnair because he “wouldn't be ashamed of a fucking airline”, adding that he would never weigh in with his choice. Another angry user said: “Will Finnair start weighing its passengers?” Did you read correctly? I was completely shocked! And disgust.

Company response

The company said that this step aims to reduce fuel waste and help estimate the weight of the aircraft more accurately. A month earlier, 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 spokesperson for the company confirmed the incident in a statement, writing: “easyJet can confirm that 19 passengers on flight EZY3364 from Lanzarote to Liverpool volunteered to fly on a later flight because the aircraft exceeded weight limits due to weather conditions.” “This is a routine operational decision in these circumstances, and weight restrictions have been imposed on all airlines for safety reasons.” The spokesperson said that if the plane proves too heavy to take off, passengers are asked to volunteer to transfer to a later flight for free and volunteers are given compensation in line with regulations. Airlines offer similar compensation when they oversell tickets for a flight and ask some passengers to volunteer to reschedule the flight. Passengers on the Lanzarote-Liverpool flight were offered “up to €500 per passenger,” a crew member said, quoted by EasyJet.

research

According to research by Holiday Extras, in 2010, 58% of Britons said they wanted overweight passengers to pay more for air travel. About 45% believe it would not make any difference to them if the airline started charging extra fees based on weight, with 6% even saying the measures would encourage them to travel more frequently. In 2017, another survey conducted by jetcost.co.uk revealed that nearly 90% of Britons believe that overweight passengers should pay more to travel by air. Nearly 80% also said they thought “plus size areas” should be included on flights.

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