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

And if you have a child who weighs more than 5 stone then you just have to lose weight yourself?

Am currently on a plane, taller than most blokes on board, yet they are allowed to weigh more? Why? For the privilege of being a man?

So if 40% of the uk population are overweight you think airlines, many of whom are struggling, will refuse to take their cash?

I've long though that your weight allowance should include your luggage and your bodies. If you have a disability which causes you to weigh more then this shouldn't apply.

@Ahardknocklife Fair enough.

Weight is not a protected characteristic.

As usual, this newspaper comic's taken something that's always happened (calculating fuel on an average weight per passenger) and used a few add-one to turn it into something approaching an article

That said, if it opens up a wider discussion it's perhaps no bad thing. The subject's been done to death on here, complete with all the usual insults, but realistically something will have to be done to address the issues around ever-expanding travellers

Same chickenychick I'm tall, weigh more than 70 kg but am a healthy bmi.
I wonder if I'll have to list the surcharge seperately in my expenses claims when I fly for work. I think a lot of my colleagues would hate that.

As always there are some horrible posts on this thread.

I’d rather be overweight than have the nasty attitudes some people have

I weigh under the child limit, would have to be cheeky and ask for a child’s ticket under such nonsense!

If they are considering charge by weight it cant be a one size fits all, they would have to take a persons height too.
I don't doubt it will happen in the future, plane cseats won't get any bigger, people are getting much wider, lots of bariatric seating will need go be fitted, I imagine they will cost. More people will be complaining if their seats are squashed.

Some of the fat shaming posts on here are disgusting.

The posts by prh47 and similar replies from other posters make much more sense. IMO weighing passengers with their baggage makes sense if it means that flying is safer and less destructive to the environment.

Anyone who can't understand that should maybe choose holidays that don't involve flying.

I am also 6ft 2. I think this is really unfair for taller women

Yay, we've not had a fat people on aeroplanes thread for a couple of weeks now.

This is even better than the norm because since weight is mentioned in the article slim people get to boast about their weigh while heavier people with a healthy BMI get to be outraged and both can look down on the fat people who they deem to be at fault.

It's not to charge more... it's to work out how much fuel is needed... non issue in my opinion, it will save emissions and money for the aviation companies

@Gingerkittykat yes it is a perfect storm.
I know this is not what is going to happen, but can you imagine the outrage if it actually did? Because it would not just be us fatties that would be charged, but anyone with a child who weighed more than 5.5 stone. MN would go into meltdown.

I am obese and tbh would rather be excluded from a flight than take the risk of flying on a plane that might crash because of a few extra stone of weight!

Weight is such an emotive issue
I can see being weighed and then charged very upsetting experience in the airport when people aren’t at their best anyway

We don’t all know what we weigh - I have absolutely no idea

I just banged the stats into the NHS BMI calculator.

A 35 year old man of average UK height of 5'9" and doing moderate activity weighing 13.8 stone has a BMI of 28.1

A 35 year old woman of average UK height of 5'3" and doing moderate activity weighing 11 stone has a BMI of 27.3

So, men get to have relatively more weight. Regardless of anything else, they at least need to make it fair!

Makes sense for people to pay for themselves by total weight, body and luggage, if it’s a fuel calculation thing.
That said, I’m 56kg, 5ft 7 and pretty skinny. If I were 5ft 9 I’d probably be 70kg and still pretty skinny so I doubt if it’s anything aimed at larger people because that’s a fairly minimal allowance.

Wehttam why should someone pay more then someone of exactly the same weight? Fat shaming doesn’t work generally. How silly.

Surely average UK height for women is higher than that?

Both of the BMI’s above are “overweight”.

I know this isn’t what the article says, but as many posts have decided it’s about fat/tall people paying more, based on weight, could we also assume that average men should pay more than average women? And kids should pay even less? Currently my family all pay the same price for a flight.

I don’t know how much my 10yr old son weighs, but he’s almost the same height as me so I’d bet it’s over 5.5stone. Would I have to leave him at home for the next 8 years of family holidays?

No-one is going to be fat shamed or have their weight broadcast to the whole airport, no-one will be turned away for being overweight or charged extra it's purely an exercise to economise on fuel as on the current guidelines (weight guesstimates) aircraft often carry far more fuel than needed.