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It’s normal to weigh passengers’ bags when checking in for an international flight — but in Auckland, it’s the passengers who are now getting onto scales before flying abroad on Air New Zealand.
The goal isn’t to single out passengers who might contribute to a plane being overloaded or out of balance — instead, the airline says, the process is part of a survey to gather real-world information.
“For safety reasons we need to know the weight of all items onboard the aircraft,” the airline says. The survey is mandated by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority, the airline said in a message to NPR.Passengers’ weights are recorded anonymously
“We weigh everything that goes on the aircraft — from the cargo to the meals onboard, to the luggage in the hold,” so that pilots can know the weight and balance of the aircraft, Alastair James, a load control specialist for the airline, said. “For customers, crew and cabin bags, we use average weights, which we get from doing this survey.”
“No one can see your weight — not even us!” James added. Still, he acknowledged that stepping onto scales in public “can be daunting.”
A person’s weight is a private issue; for anyone concerned that a digital readout might blare their weight for anyone to see, the airline says it can’t happen: “The scales do not display the weight as this is fed directly into a computer and recorded anonymously along with thousands of other passengers.
