Why do airlines ask passengers to step on scales
Every airplane has very strict weight requirements that it must meet before it is allowed to fly. This applies primarily to the engineers who design the aircraft, but airlines also need to ensure that the weight of passengers, baggage, and cargo does not exceed the permitted limit.
That is why some airlines have started to introduce passenger weighing. In May last year, Air New Zealand (ANZFF) received a lot of publicity for an experiment in which it asked passengers to weigh themselves before checking in for an international flight at Auckland Airport," writes TheStreet.
Korean Air conducted a similar experiment for those traveling on domestic flights from Seoul's Gimpo and Incheon airports.
Passengers have the right to refuse to be weighed, and this data is not visible to the check-in agent or the passengers themselves, but it goes into an anonymous pool designed to inform the airline about the general weight trends of those who board the plane with all their belongings - a way to count and account for those who shift weight from their main suitcase to their carry-on at the last minute.
As more and more airlines implement similar tests, the initial outcry over being asked to step on the scale has largely subsided, as fewer travelers are surprised to be asked to do so at the airport.
Earlier, Travel Wise wrote that the Finnish state-owned airline Finnair started weighing passengers before boarding the plane.
