This Airline Will Start Weighing Passengers Before Boarding

Certain airline passengers will soon be asked to step on a scale in addition to their usual security procedures. 

Air New Zealand is starting to weigh its passengers as part of the boarding process for international flights, by order of the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority. The program runs from now through July 2, and only affects international flights.

For now, the effort is simply a passenger weight survey meant to collect data on load distributions for aircrafts. Passengers will be directed to step on a digital scale, which will record their weight, but won't show it to the gate agent or passengers themselves. They'll weigh their luggage on a separate, identical scale at the same time.

“We weigh everything that goes on the aircraft—from the cargo to the meals onboard, to the luggage in the hold,” Air New Zealand's load control improvement specialist Alastair James said in a press statement. “For customers, crew and cabin bags, we use average weights, which we get from doing this survey.” 

The airline previously went through a similar process with domestic flights in 2021, but delayed its international survey due to pandemic-era travel restrictions. 

There are no current plans to introduce weigh-ins as a standard part of the check-in process once the survey is completed, but the subject of weight and air travel has grown increasingly contentious lately. A recent petition urging airlines to make planes more accessible to plus-sized travelers grabbed headlines and drew divided reactions online. While it's a widespread myth that airlines seats themselves have shrunk, legroom has gotten tighter as airlines seek to squeeze more rows of seats into airplanes.