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Finnair Will Be Weighing Some Passengers Before They Board A Plane

Finnair Will Be Weighing Some Passengers Before They Board A Plane

While the system will be voluntary, it's angered some people.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

When you go on holiday, there's a tendency to put on a few kilos because, hey, you're enjoying yourself. But if you board a European airline, you might just get to find out how much weight you piled on on your getaway due to a new trial.

Finnair is hoping to get between 100 and 150 passengers to step on some scales, with their carry-on luggage, before they board a flight from Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.

But before you claim that this is a fat shaming mission, it's meant to give the airline a better understanding of how to distribute weight around the plane.

The company started the trial last month and plan to keep doing it until the end of November. They're hoping they will be able to calculate an average of weight and balance to update their records, as Finnair currently relies on standards given by the European Aviation Safety Agency in 2009.

Inside a plane
Inside a plane

Credit: PA

The airline's media relations director Päivyt Tallqvist has told YLE: "Loads are different in the summer, for example, when people don't have their winter jackets and shoes and other paraphernalia.

"There is also a considerable seasonal difference in hand luggage weight for business and leisure travellers.

"The scales will measure the combined weight of the passengers and their hand luggage. No one but the customer service provider will see the results, which will be entered into the database anonymously."

Despite these assurances, it's pissed off some people.

One person wrote: "Finnair starts weighing people's weight for 'accurate plane loading data'. #FatShaming. As a thin person, I will never fly Finnair again."

Others on social media agreed they wouldn't fly with the airline, regardless of the fact that the trial is voluntary and people don't have to be weighed if they don't want to.

It's certainly not the first airline to introduce a weighing system for its passengers, with Uzbekistan Airways bringing it in two years ago. The carrier claimed that all details would remain confidential and was purely used to help make sure the plane was well balanced.

Hawaiian Airlines last year scrapped the ability for people to pre-book their seats for a specific flight. Anyone travelling from Hawaii to Samoa would have their seat assigned to them once they arrived at the airport, so that staff could ensure that people were evenly distributed around the plane.

Sources: CNN, YLE, Independent

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Plane, UK News, News, Interesting, airline