Will Airline Passengers Have to Weigh In Before Boarding?

By Robert McGarvey

Suddenly the Internet is afire with rumors that very soon we will all have to submit to a weigh in before boarding our next flight.  Even the mainstream media has joined the frenzy.  The headline on WKRC TV’s web page screamed: “Airlines may start weighing passengers before they can board flights.”

The Deseret News in Utah headlined: “Airlines might weigh passengers before boarding flights.” The subhead added: “A new initiative would require airlines to weigh passengers.”

The New York Daily News noted: “Airline passengers may have to get weighed before boarding.”

Unexpectedly, there even is a proposal involving passengers and weigh-ins that is kicking around Washington DC.

Before plunging into that, however, understand that airlines have had the option to weigh passengers for some years.  Personally I have been asked for my weight several times when flying in Alaska.  When planes are small and land on water the pilot needs to distribute weight in the plane with care.  It may be an awkward question but there are times when you will be asked and when you think on it you will be glad the pilot asked.

Airlines also already require passengers to fit in a seat with a seatbelt buckled (an extension is OK) and the armrests down. Obese passengers who don’t fit can be required to buy a second seat or deplane.   

Back to what triggered all this teeth gnashing: In May 2019 the FAA issued an advisory circular where it mulled what changes needed to be made in accurately guessing passenger weight (along with weight of carry-ons).  That is important because an airplane has a maximum weight load and much of what is on the plane already is weighed (checked baggage and freight for instance).  The big unknown is what we weigh and how much stuff we are stuffing into the overhead bins and under our seats.

Airlines had until June 12, 2021 to file a plan for more accurately estimating passenger weights.  Thus the recent angst about possible mandatory weigh-ins.

Overweight planes do crash.   Sometimes they are so stuffed they cannot manage a takeoff. Usually these are small, private planes but occasionally a commercial flight crashes due to excess weight – notably and sadly a 2003 US AIrways crash that killed 21.  The NY Times lead gives the facts: “ A commuter plane that crashed on takeoff from Charlotte, N.C., in January was 400 to 1,000 pounds overweight, and two bags in its tail baggage compartment were so heavy that it took two handlers to carry each of them, a sign that the plane was tail-heavy as well, people involved in the investigation said.”

What grabs me in that paragraph is how comparative small the deadly weight was – perhaps a half ton or less.

Keep that number in mind.

In 1980 the average weight of an adult man was 172.2.  A woman weighed 144.2

In 2014 the average man weighed 195.7.  The average woman weighed 168.5.

Let’s assume 200 passengers on a plane, with males and females evenly split.   That means the passengers now weigh at least 4780 pounds more, about two and one-half tons.

Seasonal weight differences also come into play.  FAA numbers seem to believe we are five pounds heavier in the winter and that could be explained by a topcoat and a heavier weight suit.  

So what the FAA is looking for in its 58 page advisory is a new game plan for guesstimating passenger weight for the purpose of deciding if a plane is safe to fly.  Airlines had two main options.  They could actually weigh every passenger in the boarding process, or they could rely on government estimates about our weight.

There never was a mandate that required passengers to be weighed.

Not surprisingly, per the Washington Post, airlines have indicated their preference for using government weight data.  No airline contacted by Wapo indicated it had a plan to actually weigh passengers.

That shouldn’t be a surprise. As a nation we despise our annual weigh-in at a doctor’s office and often dispute the findings (“Im wearing heavy shoes, take off five pounds!”).  We certainly would not welcome a public weigh-in with our weight flashed before a throng of passengers (doubtless all Keto diet practitioners).  Of course no airline would inflict that on us.

Proving that there indeed are limits to how much abuse airlines will heap on us. And that perhaps is the biggest surprise in this blog.