Too fat to fly
Mia Taylor, writing for BBC Travel, tells us that Finnair has sparked controversy by weighing its passengers. According to the BBC's own Lucy Hooker, however, they were doing that a full six years ago already!
Airlines use aircraft loading information, including widely-used estimates of passengers' body weights, for flight planning. But the estimated values for human body weights used currently are based on old data, and actual values have gone north since. Finnair's aim is to gain better information on loading weights.
Predictably, despite being voluntary and the data being anonymised, the scheme has set the blubberbutts all a'dither; they're bitchin' that it amounts to body shaming. And therein lies the rub: if the scheme is voluntary, the people most likely to skew the loading weights will be those least likely to participate. So what advantage will it really offer? Little more than a slightly less inaccurate guesstimate, I suppose. (shrug)
The most interesting revelation comes from Hooker's earlier report on Finnair's proposal from 2017: men travelling first class tend to weigh more than those in economy, while for women the reverse is true.
I think that tells us a lot.
The story put me in mind of a recent incident when I was flying. The announcement at departures informed us that the flight was full, and passengers in economy would be allowed only one piece of carry-on luggage. I noticed a young woman look at her two items, a small suitcase and a duffel bag, but she didn't seem too alarmed, so I assumed she was travelling business class. It wasn't until she passed me in economy, on her way further to the back of the plane, that I noticed she'd swung her duffel bag behind her and covered it under her trench coat. It gave the impression of a supersized Brazilian butt lift. (LMAO)