Whether you have flown more or less, surely there are a few routines that you apply almost mechanically every time you enter an airport to catch a plane: carry the boarding pass by hand, leave the keys, watch and mobile on a tray Before going under the security arch, check carefully what and especially how many liquids you have in your suitcase… If you plan to fly to New Zealand soon, you may have to add one more step to this ceremonial: getting on a scale so that they can weigh you
The gesture is more important than it may seem.
“Go on the scale, please”. An invitation similar to that is what thousands of travelers from Air New Zealand, the New Zealand flag carrier, will hear until July 2. And for a reason that has little to do with the curiosity of its staff or the desire to collect data. Fulfilling a requirement of the country’s authorities, the company is completing a survey on the weight of the ticket.
The study is voluntary, it will be carried out between May 29 and July 2, it wants to cover a sample of 10,000 people and it will focus on the passengers of certain flights of the international network that take off from Auckland airport, in the north of the country. “We know that getting on the scale can be daunting. We want to assure our customers that there will be no visible screen,” says Alastair James, a specialist at the company. “No one will be able to see their weight, not even us. It will be completely anonymous.”
And why do they do it? For a matter of safety and efficiency. The company reminds that before each takeoff the pilot must know the weight of the loaded plane and how it is balanced. And to achieve this, it needs data that is as accurate and up-to-date as possible, which is what both the airline and the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority are aiming for with their new study.
“We weigh everything that goes on the plane, from the cargo to the meals on board, going through the hold baggage. For customers, crew and cabin baggage we use average weights that we obtain by doing this study”, James ditch: “It’s simple, it’s voluntary, and it helps us fly safely and efficiently.”
Its the first time? No. This is not the first time that Air New Zealand has carried out a test of this type, nor is it the only airline that participates in similar initiatives. In 2021 the New Zealand company already promoted a similar campaign, although on that occasion the clients of its national network were weighed. “Now that international travel is back up and running, it’s time for your passengers to get involved,” the company details. With the data you obtain, you will be able to calculate the average weight of the customers, key, for example, for more efficient fuel management.
The Telegraph points out that New Zealand allows its airlines to estimate the weight of passengers in various ways: with periodic surveys to calculate average values or based on a standard value set by the authorities themselves, which estimate about 86 kilos for each older traveler. from 13 years old, including luggage. The data is of course not fixed, nor immovable. Until 2004, the last time it was updated, it was calculated about 77 kilos for each traveler.
And beyond New Zealand? The same. Air New Zealand is not the only one interested in knowing how much its travelers weigh. The EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) itself has carried out similar surveys to find out the average mass of users and their luggage at a national, international and intercontinental level. In 2008 it conducted a study based on the work of JAA and in 2022 contracted Lufthansa Consulting to review its values.
The fieldwork focused on six airports in Greece, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Germany and Bulgaria and focused on the average weight of passengers and baggage of all kinds. In total, the technicians surveyed more than 4,100 people and obtained some 1.9 million data sets of invoiced packages.
Why repeat them then? To handle updated data. The EASA report did not show great variations in terms of passengers, for example -men weigh an average of 82.2 kilos and women 67.5-, but it did in terms of checked baggage: an average weight of 16 kg , 0.8 kg less than in 2008.
Furthermore, the agency recognizes the need to review the data in anticipation of how COVID or teleworking may have influenced. Due to the impact of the pandemic […]we suggest a similar study in five years to exclude those effects and also possible changes in the purpose of the flights, for example, due to remote work, with perhaps less business and more leisure travel.
Foresighted… but with reasons. The caution of the EASA or the New Zealand authorities might seem exaggerated, but the truth is that the weight of the passengers is not an immutable value. The latest national health survey shows, for example, that the rate of obesity in New Zealand has experienced a rebound: in adults it has gone from 31 to 34% and that of the child population increased from 10 to 13%. The World Obesity Atlas 2023 also predicts that more than half of the world’s population will suffer from overweight or obesity in 12 years if prevention measures are not adopted and the problem is addressed.
Spain is no exception. The data collected by EP Data show a considerable increase in the percentage of the population with obesity between the 1980s and 2017 and the problem is especially worrying among the youngest. According to a report by the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI), before the pandemic, 39% of Spanish children between the ages of seven and nine were overweight and 12% obese, making Spain the third largest country in Spain. Europe with the most cases of childhood overweight.
Cover image: Suhyeon Choi (Unsplash)
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