At Helsinki airport, passengers flying with the Finnish airline are now being asked to step onto weighing scales before boarding. This is voluntary, so those who don’t want to participate can still fly. The aim of this initiative is to gather data on passenger weight to verify if the current estimates used for calculating fuel and ensuring safety are accurate. Up until now, FinnAir has relied on standard weight estimates from the European Aviation Safety Agency, which were calculated in 2009. These estimates assume an average weight of 88 kg for a male passenger, 70 kg for a female passenger, and 35 kg for a child, including their carry-on bags.
However, the EASA discovered these averages do not account for various factors: men in first class usually weigh more than those in economy class, while the opposite is true for women. The average hand luggage weight is 6.1 kg, but this figure decreases significantly during the summer. Additionally, men tend to carry heavier items than women.
So far, 180 volunteers have agreed to be weighed along with their carry-on luggage. Finnair needs a total of 2,000 volunteers to get a clear picture of typical payloads.
Back in 2016, Hawaiian Airlines was granted permission to weigh passengers on its 2,600-mile route between Honolulu and American Samoa. They assigned seats at check-in to make sure the plane’s weight was evenly distributed. This move was controversial because it solely targeted the route between Honolulu and Pago Pago, and Samoans have the highest obesity rates in the world.