New Zealand airline starts weighing passengers – 05/30/2023 – Market

The New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority has asked the country’s airline, Air New Zealand, to weigh passengers on international flights departing from Auckland International Airport by July 2, 2023.

According to the airline, the program, called passenger weight survey, is a way to collect data on the cargo and weight distribution of planes. The information is from CNN.

“We weigh everything that goes on the aircraft — from cargo to meals on board to luggage in the hold,” Alastair James, an expert on improving the airline’s cargo control, said in a statement. “For customers, crew and cabin bags, we use average weights, which we get from doing this research.”

To protect the privacy of individuals, the airline says it has anonymized the data.

Travelers will be asked to stand on a digital scale when they check in for their flight. Weight information is sent to the survey but will not be displayed on the agent’s screen.

They will also place your luggage on another identical scale for separate weighing.

“We know that stepping on the scale can be scary. We want to assure our customers that there is no visible display anywhere. No one can see your weight, not even us,” said James.

This isn’t the first time the airline has asked passengers to step on the scale before boarding its flights. Domestic passengers participated in a survey in 2021, but that of international travelers was postponed due to the pandemic.