Air New Zealand to weigh passengers before
they board the airplane
By Lilit Marcus, CNN
Published 5:18 AM EDT, Tue May 30, 2023
Air New Zealand's weight survey will take place on
some flights from May 31-July 2, 2023.
Air New Zealand
Remove
your shoes. Take your keys out of your pocket. Step on the scale?
That’s
right: New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority is requiring that its national
airline weigh passengers departing on international flights from Auckland
International Airport through July 2, 2023.
The
program, which Air New Zealand calls a passenger weight survey, is a way to
gather data on the weight load and distribution for planes, the airline said.
“We
weigh everything that goes on the aircraft – from the cargo to the meals
onboard, to the luggage in the hold,” Alastair James, the airline’s load
control improvement specialist said in a statement. “For customers, crew and
cabin bags, we use average weights, which we get from doing this survey.”
Still,
weight is a personal thing that not everyone wishes to disclose. In order to
protect individuals’ privacy, the airline says it has made the data anonymous.
Travelers
will be asked to stand on a digital scale when they check in for their flight.
The information about their weight is then submitted to the survey but will not
be viewable on the agent’s screen.
They
will also place their luggage on another identical scale for separate weighing.
“We
know stepping on the scales can be daunting. We want to reassure our
customers there is no visible display anywhere. No one can see your weight, not
even us,” James said.
This
isn’t the first time that Air NZ has asked passengers to step on the scales
before boarding their flights. Domestic passengers took part in a survey in
2021, but the one for international travelers was delayed due to the pandemic.
Among
the people who may be asked to take part in the survey are those traveling on
the direct flight from Auckland to New York City’s JFK Airport.
The
17-hour flagship route was launched last fall as
a lynchpin of Air NZ’s post-pandemic strategy. It’s also one of the longest
flights in the world.
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