On September 16, it became evident that airlines were becoming more interested in passengers’ weight. Prominent carriers like Korean Air and Air New Zealand introduced a rather unconventional rule, requiring passengers to step on scales before boarding their flights. […] This novel approach in the aviation industry has gained momentum, with the objective of maintaining optimal aircraft weight and thereby reducing fuel consumption. The primary goal of this unconventional procedure is to precisely determine the standard weight of passengers and averages. This, in turn, aids in accurately calculating the distribution of weight on the aircraft, resulting in fuel savings. […] The ultimate objective is to ensure that each flight adheres to strict parameters set by the maximum take-off weight of the aircraft, thereby enhancing safety. However, for many, this emphasis on safety might feel like an intrusion into their privacy.
I didn’t know that this was a factor that they needed to consider. The privacy aspect is real, and we need regulations on storage and deletion of this data after each flight. I can already see this info being sold to advertisers.
On the discomfort side, couldn’t they have the collection and recording happen in the background? If no other passengers or staff can see the numbers, there’s less of a chance of someone feeling uncomfortable with the process.
This is all assuming that this is actually necessary or helpful.
On the discomfort side, couldn’t they have the collection and recording happen in the background? If no other passengers or staff can see the numbers, there’s less of a chance of someone feeling uncomfortable with the process.
The weighing process involves humans, so that wouldn’t be possible.
Their average intelligence being what it is, when instructed to have one person on the scale, sometimes it’s one, sometimes two, sometimes two and a stroller. Sometimes somehow a horse ends up on the scale and no one really understands how, including that horse.
Unless you check the weight, you don’t know what exactly was weighed.
i mean, if theres a plate on the floor and soneone checks theres only one person on it before a button is pressed that solves that and theres no reason to display the number. Flash up an error to retry if its more than 3 sigma away from the expected mean.
I didn’t know that this was a factor that they needed to consider. The privacy aspect is real, and we need regulations on storage and deletion of this data after each flight. I can already see this info being sold to advertisers.
On the discomfort side, couldn’t they have the collection and recording happen in the background? If no other passengers or staff can see the numbers, there’s less of a chance of someone feeling uncomfortable with the process.
This is all assuming that this is actually necessary or helpful.
The weighing process involves humans, so that wouldn’t be possible.
Their average intelligence being what it is, when instructed to have one person on the scale, sometimes it’s one, sometimes two, sometimes two and a stroller. Sometimes somehow a horse ends up on the scale and no one really understands how, including that horse.
Unless you check the weight, you don’t know what exactly was weighed.
i mean, if theres a plate on the floor and soneone checks theres only one person on it before a button is pressed that solves that and theres no reason to display the number. Flash up an error to retry if its more than 3 sigma away from the expected mean.
They’re not weighing every passenger forever. They just want to get reliable stats on the average per passenger.
The article states that the information will be kept private.