At the request of national aviation officials, Air New Zealand has been collecting the weights of passengers departing on international flights from Auckland International Airport.
While noting that participation in the airline’s new passenger weight survey is both anonymous and voluntary, a statement from May 29 read that “[for] safety reasons we need to know the weight of all items onboard the aircraft.”
The program, ordered by the Civil Aviation Authority, aims to gather crucial data on passengers and their luggage in order to better distribute the weight load for future flights.
A U.S. Federal Aviation Administration handbook on aircraft weight and balance explains that it is critical that the load in an airplane doesn’t surpass the allowable limit and is distributed so as not to disrupt its center of gravity.
An overloaded airplane can result in several changes to how it flies.
At takeoff, it would require greater speed and a longer track since its rate and angle of ascension will be lower.
When in the air, it would be less maneuverable and would travel slower at a reduced range.
When landing, the airplane would pick up higher speeds and thus would require a longer runway. The landing gear would take a toll from the heavier load.
International Air New Zealand flights were targeted for the weight survey due to their long durations, notably its 17-hour-long Auckland to New York JFK flight, which is one of the longest in the world, as CNN reported.
The goal is to collect at least 10,000 passenger weights before the program ends in early July, according to NPR.
Alastair James, a load control specialist for Air New Zealand, admitted that weighing yourself in public “can be daunting” but reassured passengers that nothing is displayed and the recorded weight goes straight into the computer.
“No one can see your weight — not even us!” James claimed, according to NPR.
The issue of overweight passengers on commercial airliners has been heavily discussed on social media.
As The Dallas Express reported, one 18-year-old Reddit user posting under the handle “L4l0_Salamanca” launched a debate back in April in the subreddit AITA (“Am I the A–hole?”).
His post described how he had to share his seat with an obese passenger’s “literal rolls” during a 12-hour connecting flight. Some Reddit users called him fatphobic, while others sympathized with the unfortunate situation.
Like elsewhere in the world, obesity rates in New Zealand are growing.
The Ministry of Health reported in 2020-2021 that one in three adults was obese, marking an increase of approximately 31% from the year before. Women in particular logged higher rates of obesity, rising from a prevalence of almost 32% to nearly 36%.
