Finnair has confirmed its new plans to weigh passengers prior to them boarding the plane, according to reports from The Sun.
The European airline revealed it wants to plonk as many as 150 of its passengers on every flight onto a set of scales – with their luggage – before getting onto the plane.
But, in a suspicious twist, Finnair said it wouldn’t be penalising anyone they deemed “overweight”, per The Sun.
Instead, they’re using the data collected from these weigh-ins to aid them in cutting operating costs.
Finnair claims that by identifying more exact weight averages, the airline will be able to streamline their operating costs when it comes to the fuelling of its aircraft.
Per The Sun, until now Finnair has relied on the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) figures to calculate how to balance the aircraft with fuel and overall weight. Those measurements were made eight years ago, so Finnair hopes these new measures will be more reliable.
“We want to make sure we have the best possible data at our disposal also in this respect,” Sami Suokas, Manager of Customer Processes at Finnair, told the newspaper Helsinki Times.
“That’s why we’re collecting data from our own network.”
Per The Sun, Suokas claimed the weight of the airline’s passengers changed drastically between the summer and winter periods (hello, holiday weight), although pins the disparity on the extreme temperature variations.
Per the EASA recordings, the average male passenger in Europe weights 84kg and flies with carry-on luggage amounting to just 0.5kg.
The average female passenger is apparently 65kg and brings about 5kg of carry-on luggage, which if we’re going off what we took on our last flight is a total lie.
In comparison, per The Sun, the average Finnish man – because a European average is a bit of a stretch – weighs 85kg and the women on average weigh 70kg.
