Airline announces it will now weigh passengers before boarding

Not trying to make travel anxiety worse for anyone but an airline has announced it will now start to weigh their passengers before boarding.

Finnish carrier Finnair has announced their plans to have weigh ins for February, April and May of this year.

This comes after the viral footage of one passenger from a different airline who was asked to step on the same scales which are used to weigh bags.

A clip of the incident was uploaded to TikTok in March, and amassed some 1.6 million views before it was later deleted.

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It included the caption: “The whole airport trying to mind their own business as a woman is asked to step on the baggage scale because she claimed she was 130lbs."

Taking to the comments section, one person asked: "Why would they need her weight...? or is this a US thingy?"

And a second added: "That’s not ok."

TikToker Lillian Wessel (@lilwessel) went on to explain why the woman was weighed.

"It’s a tiny plane so they needed our weight to take off for safety reasons," they said.

Now Finnair has used a different approach for weighing their passengers and has announced that they will only do so on a voluntary basis.

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"Measurements began at Helsinki Airport this week on Monday... So far, more than 500 volunteer customers have participated in the weigh-ins," Finnair spokeswoman Kaisa Tikkanen said on Wednesday (7 February).

They said in a statement that flight balance estimates require airlines to know the 'weight of the aircraft itself and the weight of fuel, checked baggage and cargo, onboard catering, water tanks, and of course customers'.

"The collected data is not linked in any way to the customer's personal data," said Satu Munnukka, head of ground processes at Finnair.

"Only the customer service agent working at the measuring point can see the total weight, so you can participate in the study with peace of mind," she assured.

Some have since took to social media to comment on the news.

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One wrote: "Finnair are to start weighing their passengers? Have I read that correctly? I am utterly shocked! And disgusted."

Another claimed that the weigh-in rules' are not about passenger safety' as 'no airplane has ever crashed because of overweight passengers'.

Meanwhile, communications director Päivyt Tallqvist told The Huffington Post: "This is part of having a very strong safety culture in our organisation.

"We want to see if the data we're using for calculations is accurate. We use them for every flight, and they're important for the aircraft's performance.

"When you explain this to [passengers], they understand."

LADbible has contacted Finnair for comment.