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How long after they put in these new "skinny" seats, will they start weighing and measuring the passengers, and charging them for an extra seat if they are chubbier than a typical major league baseball shortstop?
Got to "earn that cost of capital", dontcha know.
If they bother weighing passengers then maybe they will apportion snacks based on that weight.
If people are paying more to fly, based on weight, then they should not go light on those snacks. It’s a win win.
The people commenting on those seats seem to be standing in front of a screen showing a picture of those seats. Seems to me analogous to judging a book by its cover.
Finnair said the move, which will be done on a voluntary basis through May, is designed to improve balance calculations that will enhance flight safety.
Air New Zealand does that as part of a survey to generate average weights for people traveling on Air New Zealand flights.
Both tests are voluntary and anonymous. The goal is to get readings from at least 10,000 air passengers.
The scales do not display the weight as this is fed directly into a computer and recorded anonymously.
Airlines have been using averages for decades. When I worked for a major airline we’d use 190 pounds as an average weight for a passenger and their carry on and an average of 70 pounds for checked baggage.
I don’t recall an epidemic ( or even any at all) of airplanes falling out of the sky because were too heavy or loaded incorrectly… throwing off the balance.
Airlines have been using averages for decades. When I worked for a major airline we’d use 190 pounds as an average weight for a passenger and their carry on and an average of 70 pounds for checked baggage.
I don’t recall an epidemic ( or even any at all) of airplanes falling out of the sky because were too heavy or loaded incorrectly… throwing off the balance.
There was a turboprop plane that crashed in 2003 because the average FAA-approved passenger weight number the pilots on that flight used to calculate weight and balance for the flight was too low (it was using data collected in the 1950s). That caused the FAA to increase the number. What companies like Finnair and Air New Zealand are now doing is recollecting data every few years from passengers on their various routes so the weights they use for their weight and balance calculations will continue to remain accurate. That way if passenger weight continues to increase, they'll know it and won't make a potentially deadly miscalculation (or fly their planes with a lower safety margin than they realize).
I remember when flying was somewhat enjoyable. Used to go from New York to Florida on National. Anybody remember them? The last time I flew was in 2021 from Florida to Denver. Not super comfortable but I can deal with it for 4 hours. Any longer and I think I would be quite unhappy.
My very first airline flight was on National, back in 1975. After Pan Am gobbled them up, I flew on a flight from DCA to PBI that was branded as Pan Am, but it was probably just a repainted National plane and a re-uniformed National crew.
Speaking of unpleasant flying experiences, I remember some years ago if you were on an international flight arriving in New Zealand, after your plane arrived at the gate, you had to sit tight while NZ officials boarded the aircraft with spray bottles of some sort of insecticide which they then proceeded to spray over your head while they walked up and down the aisleways (while you tried covering your mouth and nose with a tissue). Only after they had left the aircraft were you allowed to get up and disembark.
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