Should all passengers be weighed before they board an aircraft?

This week, Finnair announced passengers would have the option of weighing themselves before they board the flight.

The data will allow the airline to more accurately estimate how much fuel it needs for the flight, thus reducing waste and carbon emissions.

Speaking to The Hard Shoulder, weight loss specialist Dr Eva Orsmond said, as a Finn, the news made her “very proud” of her home country.

“I think it’s very good that we’re starting to do this,” she said.

“It obviously makes sense that we know, more or less, what people weigh because people are getting heavier.

“We know that being overweight and obesity is increasing… It’s affecting now the safety of air travel.”

Use of weighing scales.

To some it might seem like more unnecessary hassle at the airport but Dr Orsmond said the weight of passengers can make a huge difference.

“There’s 200 people in a plane, if every single one of them was 10 kilos heavier than we are expecting them to be, that would be 2,000 kilos more in the aeroplane,” she said.

“If there’s 200 passengers and they are 20 kilos each heavier that would mean 4,000 more kilos in that aeroplane.

“So, clearly those figures would make a difference to the aeroplane.”

Dr Orsmond said she hopes that the move makes people think about how their weight impacts others around them.

“If my luggage is three or four kilos too heavy, I have to pay quite heftily for it,” she said.

“Whereas someone the same age and height could be 10 or 20 kilos heavier and they don’t have to pay.”

Finnair is not the first airline to introduce the concept of weighing passengers; Air New Zealand began weighing international travellers in May last year.

Main image: Passengers disembark from planes at Dublin Airport. Image: Phil Crean A / Alamy