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

Oh gosh. I feel obese now reading these comments. I actually am I think.

Even if people were going to be charged by weight Glasshouse (which they’re not), it’s not a tax on moral laxity, it’s the cost of the fuel to take you into the air. You might as well ask why you have to spend more on food because it’s not your fault you have a higher TDEE.

So will women pay less than men then, if we have a lower weight limit than them?

Fucking hell there's some vile people on here.

Comparing people to luggage. Really?

It's not "fair" that fat people pay the same as thin people? In what universe are you hard done by?

I'm sure someone will come along and try and justify the unjustifiable but you're talking about people here not objects.

Surely average UK height for women is higher than that?

Avg height in the uk is 5'3

Those going on about airplane safety - are you going to refuse to fly until it's brought in (never) because it's unsafe?

And people saying women who weigh over 70 kilos are overweight are also mistaken.

Anyone under 5'4" is overweight at 70kg. I would be overweight at 60kg and very, very close to obese at 70kg. But 70kg is a ludicrous limit for women because plenty of us are 5'5"+.

If they did introduce a flight surcharge by body weight
(WHICH IS NOT WHAT THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT)
then the legalities of discrimination law would be interesting. Is a flat rate per kilo indirect discrimination against men? Would a higher allowance for men than women (and then a surcharge per kilo above that) be illegally discriminatory against women?

This can’t be for real can it? At 6’0, I fluctuate between 10 and 10.5 stone. I have a BMI of 18.5. 11 stone would put me at a BMI of 20.8. Have they not taken height into account at all?

Oh I need to self ID as a man AND a child

The current system isn’t unsafe doublebarrellednurse because they err on the side of caution. But it does result in airlines carrying, and hence using, too much fuel which is a slight addition to climate change and drives costs up a bit.

@Linguaphile did you read the article?

We are living in an increasingly divisive world, I've noticed stories like this a fair bit recently- obese people denied nhs treatment etc (I know it was Michael Burke blathering nonsense) but it seems like this is the new 'group' to be attacked.
I am classed as obese- I am also a full time worker and have been since I was 20, I'm now 44 ,pay full taxes and work as a public servant. These obese people are not the people you think- they are your mothers, teachers, co workers and friends- do you want them denied help or unable to afford flying? The airline companies make BILLIONS - it is up to them to sort out- not turning people on their peers. I'm really worried about the state of this country- we have lost our empathy and humanity

The way obesity is talked about on mumsnet is horrific. I can't imagine anyone would ever talk about people with drug and alcohol issues in the same way. At least not publicly.

crochetmonkey unfortunately there are some lifestyle factors that do have an impact on our health. No-one likes to be told to drink less, give up smoking, lose weight etc, but the rising levels of obesity in this country is impacting on the NHS whether we like it or not.

Just for the fat shamers here.
I have a disease called Lipoedema. It is classified As a RAD - Rare adipose disorder. It is extremely difficult to get a diagnosis. I do not fit comfortably into a plane seat. I am 5ft and weigh over 20 stone. I have a 28 inch waist and wear a 36c bra. If you saw me sitting at a table I would look as though I was on the low side of average weight.
I can tell you now NOBODY takes disability into account when it comes to weight.

@hula008 I did, and I get the idea of exact weight saving on fuel costs, but airlines excluding ‘overweight’ passengers from busy (or, more likely, intentionally overbooked) flights is a horrendous prospect as someone who literally would be considered on the low end of a healthy BMI to fit the weight requirements. If they even asked passengers to approximate their height at booking instead of indicating sex, that seems a much better way to approximate what weight each passenger should ‘ideally’ be. Arbitrarily setting weight limits based on sex instead of actual info about the passenger is ridiculous coming from a woman who is taller than most men.

FFS, do they not teach English comprehension in schools anymore?
This article is perfectly straightforward. It's not about setting allowances, it's about accurately assessing the amount of fuel required, using real measurements rather than guess work.

They can't be teaching basic maths either or else we wouldn't have so many people completely failing to understand a discussion about the word average and being able to imagine that any random group of people are going to vary in weight and some are going to be heavier than others. That's not fat shaming FFS, that's just a basic fact.

The airline needs a mix of light and heavy people on it's flight and any significant deviation from the expected average causes them problems because if the collective weight of passengers is much less than normal, they will be wasting fuel and if much heavier (note, not necessarily more overweight, just heavier, maybe taller, more muscular or wearing clumpy shoes for those who feel the need to see non existent fat shaming in every sentence that mentions weight), they are in danger of having to declare an emergency.

Just like it causes an airline problems if everyone turns up with a cabin case of the maximum dimensions, and there is no room in the lockers for an above average volume of cases, it causes similar problems if the flight is full of heavier people than a typical normal distribution.

Oh Fuck! I am a women and weight over 13st so should probably identify as a Rhino!
I can see it now, I shall be crated up at the airport.

Literally laughed my ass off. Too funny.

but the rising levels of obesity in this country is impacting on the NHS whether we like it or not

Absolutely- I agree completely- and that is why we need strict legislation on the food manufacturing companies about what they can put into food- not every overweight person is lazy stupid and feckless- they are putting rubbish into our affordable food to increase profits- until we have a government who REALLY wants to address the health of their people by having strict legislation on the companies instead of barking at and judging average people, it will not change.

God, hopefully there is never a plane full of MN'ers.... with you all being so svelte, it will take off like a Harrier jet and end up through the Stratosphere grin

Another LOL. You guys are too witty.

Ginfordinner, there's as many financial analysts that say the early deaths of obese patients, even out the spending.

Most cancers are lifestyle related. There's many a thread on here were posters know that they drink too much, eat too much sugar and don't exercise enough, but because they are a 'healthy' weight, they don't care.

A lot of morbidly obese people have MH issues, so if you aren't spending on one issue, you're spending on the other.

It's unfair to demonise one group.

Ponoka7
You are right about demonization and the current rhetoric is always 'strain on the nhs' - it's becoming a mantra

Also, the NHS is under strain due to constant mismanagement and sneaky privatisation- people forget it is a system to serve it's PEOPLE whoever they are- it doesn't exist to be only accessible to those who fit a certain criteria. It is the people's service and if the govt think the people are in a health crisis this needs to be addressed at a govt level.

I always feel really sad (melancholy, not dismissive) when I read the sniping and the superiority stuff about weight on Mumsnet.

I think as a previous poster said, we have serious problems in this country with food technology and home economics. Additive-rich food, lots of convenience food (I'm a consumer of this too I add), and a huge increase in relatively cheap takeaways.

People often follow this with references to the 1950s, and how we've become so much more obese as a nation since. Which I believe is true.

The key thing is that we now generally have two parents working. An excellent and necessary thing in terms of careers/economic productivity/rights. But it introduced another layer of challenge into a household. Some people embrace all of this and still manage to eat healthily. Friends of mine have dads cooking once home. Others are time poor and both parents resort to convenience food.

Then maybe we don't have both parents at home, so perhaps that introduces another layer of things.

There are thousands upon thousands more cars on the roads now than in the 1950s and 1960s. People drive to work, to the supermarket, to the school etc, and can't see the incremental effect this has on weight and fitness.

So my point is, unless we address so many of the things that are changing our society, then we will in general have rising obesity. I'm not including people with thyroid/physical health/MH conditions in this - these are obvious exemptions.