While once considered crass and unthinkable, a number of airlines have started exploring the idea of having travelers step on the scales before they board.
As each airplane to take to the skies is subject to a very strict and inflexible weight limit regulation, the goal is to better calculate the weight of everyone and everything going into the plane.
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"Korean Air will be measuring the average weight of passengers along with their carry-on items for flight safety," South Korea's primary airline Korean Air announced on its website after new requirements from the country's government.
'Passengers will be asked to step on scales,' Korean Air announces
A temporary initiative meant to gather data for the Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the move will affect those traveling domestically out of Seoul's Gimpo International Airport from Aug. 28 to Sept. 3 and from the larger Incheon International Airport between Sept. 8 and 19.
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When they board, travelers will be asked to step on a scale with all of their carry-on items. The data will be collected anonymously and shared into a larger data pool to reflect the overall weight of everyone on board. Neither the flight attendant nor even the traveler will see the weight displayed anywhere but passengers can still opt out of being weighed by letting the agent know.
"Korean Air passengers will be asked to step on scales with their carried-on items at each boarding gate," a Korean Air representative clarified to USA Today. "The data collated anonymously will be utilized for survey purposes and doesn't mean overweight passengers will need to pay more."
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A similar initiative was taken on earlier in the year by Air New Zealand (ANZFF) -) — between May and July 2023, passengers checking in for an international flight at Auckland Airport were also asked step on a scale to provide weight data for an anonymized pool.
The airline had conducted a similar survey two years earlier and plans to continue doing this regularly in order to have updated data on the weight of passengers aboard. In the case of Korean Air, the decision to conduct such a survey was not made by the airline but mandated by the transportation ministry to ensure accurate plane estimations.
While U.S. airlines are yet to try anything similar, aviation experts say that it is not unlikely that it one day will. In 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an advisory saying that asking passengers to step on a scale is one possibility for estimating overall weight and ensuring that the passengers and luggage aboard do not bring it over the permitted plane limit — although, given the embarrassment this could cause some travelers, it is not seen as the best alternative.
"It's critically important for the safety of flight that you know how much the airplane weighs — it's particularly certificated to perform in a given way at a given weight," NBC News aviation expert John Cox said during an episode of the "Today Show" when Air New Zealand announced the survey back in May.
