Airlines to weigh passengers before boarding

[B3ck89]

www.thesun.co.uk/travel/8895844/airlines-weigh-passengers-save-fuel/?utm_campaign=sunmainfacebook040919&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1567623178

Spotted this in the sun.

Many allow 88kg (13.8 stone) for men, 70kg (11 stone) for women and 35kg (5.5 stone) for children

This bit confused me a little bit, is that their estimate they use for calculating fuel consumption? My partner and children weigh more than that estimate

I wonder what their weight limit will be? 🤔
And I can see shit will hit the fan when/if this does come into force, and passengers are excluded from the flight

I was fat, and I was fat shamed, and I was ashamed of being fat. I absolutely hated dragging my obese aching body around. In the end it was too much for me and I stopped overeating and started eating like a normal.person, and the weight fell away until wasn't fat any more. I am fed up with fat apologists. Yes there is fast food everywhere etc etc etc, but it is down to the individual to exercise self control, and take responsibility for their life and their health. And yes, I know obesity issue to hormones or medical conditions for a very few people, but for the vast majority of vast people it's down to stuffing our faces.

I’m 74kg and a size 10/12. Weight varies so much person to person. I’m 5’4 so not tall either. I just have a huge amount of muscle mass from years of weight training.

And yes, I was fat due to childhood sexual abuse and other emotional reasons, and yes I struggled with it all my adult life, but being humiliated and being held to account for being fat was not the worst thing. The worst thing about being fat was being fat!

I am do very much happier now I'm a normal BMI and in control of myself. I thoroughly enjoy my food as I'm genuinely hungry when I eat. I can fly around on limbs and joints that don't hurt, I look great and people take me much more seriously now, as they are no longer uncomfortably looking at someone who is destroying themselves and smothering themselves in blubber. Food shopping costs and weighs less. I can where what I like instead of the biggest t shirt in town, and when I travel on a plane I can put the tray table fully down with room to spare and not crowd the person next to me.

”I'm nearly 6ft, my OH is nearly 6ft 8. We would be over the average by quite a bit.”

Not “would be”. You are over the averages. That’s how averages work. Some people are over, some people are under. The figures quoted are the averages currently used to determine how much fuel to take.

”It's ridiculous and discriminating against something we can't control.”

How is calculating fuel based on accurate weight rather than assumptions of averages discriminating against you?

”If it's about flying safely, why isn't the body weight allowance for men and women the same?”

There is no “allowance”. The weights quoted are the average assumptions currently used to calculate fuel. The suggestion is to use actual weights rather than these assumptions.

“Why is is less safe to fly a woman who is 11st 6lbs than a man who is 12st 6lbs?”

No one said it was.

Yet another way for people to smugly declare themselves superior on the basis of some arbitrary measure (weight). And judge those who are larger than them, whether because of height or width.

Some of the posters here beggar belief. "I'm below average weight therefore I deserve an advantage/additional luggage space"

Is it any wonder there is an epidemic of eating disorders among adolescents? What a truly miserable way to celebrate humanity in all its richness - a social pecking order based on thin-ness, most of which is genetic. Both height and obesity have genetic roots.

I hate these threads, they make me realise what a miserable, smug, judgy bunch of people are really out there.

This is the most extraordinary thread. There is nothing I can see in the article that anyone should be able to object to. The proposal is to enable airlines to calculate more accurately the amount of fuel needed for each individual flight, so that they don't need to overfill with fuel. That has got to be sensible from an environmental point of view as well as a cost one, as more fuel is needed to carry the weight of the fuel that isn't needed.

No one has suggested charging people more if they weigh more than the currently used averages.

This is the most extraordinary thread.

Quite. It seems the majority of posters did not read the facts and instead decided to go off in a tangent huffing and puffing indignantly about discrimination and/or bleating about being entitled to extra luggage allowance because they are built like a twig.

I can't see what is wrong with weighing passengers discretely if it helps work out how much fuel is required. Why are people objecting to the idea?

Quite. It seems the majority of posters did not read the facts and instead decided to go off in a tangent huffing and puffing indignantly about discrimination and/or bleating about being entitled to extra luggage allowance because they are built like a twig.

They probably just read the OP who also doesn't seem to have read the article. Unless they are just trying to get a reaction with the comment "I wonder what their weight limit will be? 🤔
And I can see shit will hit the fan when/if this does come into force, and passengers are excluded from the flight"

There will be a big drop in passenger numbers!

There will be a big drop in passenger numbers!

Don't talk rubbish. You obviously did not read the article.

Of course there won't be a big drop in passenger numbers. Maybe those who can't read and understand the reasoning behind why it has become necessary.

Anyone who has an ounce of common sense and can manage a bit of reading comprehension will still want to fly.

I hate these threads, they make me realise what a miserable, smug, judgy bunch of people are really out there

I think it's just an online thing as some people have to feel superior about something. I used to do modelling when young & skinny & at 5ft 9 was one of the shortest. I was also quite average looking (think I grew into my looks) & looked much better in photos. Now this is true for many models but there are still some who are off the scale gorgeous on & off camera. I've never met anyone who was smug or conceited. Are there really a load of people out there of average height & weight that think they are better than others?
It's weird how so many on the thread have started discussing obesity when the article is not about that.

Because I'm 5.7 and weigh tenbstone and am size 12-14

It couldn't be that people are completely different shapes in spite of being the same weight. When I was ten stone I was a size 8.

As much as 70kg. Seriously. Please can people get a grip. I’m 5’5 and around 10 stone 10/sometimes 11 stone. I wear a size 10/12. I also have 32h boobs, which weigh a fair amount. So can we please realised that 11 stone for a a women isn’t clinically obese. I am a healthy BMI. So if I have to be weighed and charged I will be annoyed. I do not take up any extra room on the plane. Really hope this doesn’t happen as weight is a number, and unless someone is really tipping the scales I am sure there is a lot of other things that could go in the plane.

weight is a number

that's the whole point. it's a number to help the pilot/airline operator to calculate how much fuel
is needed for the flight. (atm) nothing more.

Yeah I get that, but really an 11 stone woman should be charged for being overweight when she is a healthy BMI? Which unless she was under 5 foot 3 she would be. I just think that’s not a heavy weight for a woman. Even at my slimmest size 8/10 pre baby I was 10 stone? Clearly a lot of women on here very judgemental. I’m merely pointing out weight can be subjective and to do with muscle mass, being busty etc. Not every woman has to be 50kg to be healthy. Plus why can men be heavier? Can the plane and physics differentiate between sexes??
Feel like there are a lot of insensitive and judgemental comments on this (unless people are qualified aero nautical engineers) for non experts on aviation and weight issues on a plane.

”really an 11 stone woman should be charged for being overweight when she is a healthy BMI?”

What is it that makes you think that is going to happen??

it's not about 'charging per weight' (atm) but replacing the old formula to calculate the weight of crew and passengers, which is not very accurate (passenger & crew numbers x average weight), with the actual weight.
that could make flights more green economical and safer.

Why are people still wittering on about the unfairness of this. There is no suggestion that they will charge per weight and even if they did they couldn't charge women or children more per Kg than men. They are just thinking of weighing to estimate fuel consumption more accurately. Read the article!

The article says people’s weight would be taken while standing on pressure pads & passed confidentially to the airline. Nothing about standing on scales & shouting out everyone’s weights or displaying them to the whole queue.

Mishka I’m not an aeronautical engineer but I do have O level physics and I can read.

One more time.
At the moment airlines assume average weights of 11 stone for women and 13.8 stone for men when calculating fuel. It has been suggested that it would be more efficient to weigh passengers discreetly at the point of check-in to get a more accurate figure, and abandon the assumed averages.

Nobody apart from people on this thread has suggested charging a surcharge accordingly. It would be technically very easy, but there would be enormous legal and PR difficulties.

Not sure many of you have actually read the article... the proposition is to weigh passengers in order to accurately calculate the amount of fuel needed per flight in order to reduce waste...

This very quickly turned in to a large amount of fat shaming, intentionally or not.