Airlines face criticism over decision to weigh-in passengers
Posted Nov 3, 2017 07:45:11 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
An airline’s plan to weigh more than just checked luggage has drawn criticism from travellers.
Finnair made the news this week when it announced it would be weighing its customers on departing flights at Helsinki airport. The weigh-ins would be done on a voluntary basis for research purposes.
Although this isn’t a new practice, recently a Canadian airline was caught weighing customers and it did not sitting well with some travellers.
Devra Waldman tweeted Sunwing a photo that appeared to show a man stepping onto a scale, with a backpack on and a piece of carry-on luggage by his side. In that tweet, she wrote, “If people are above a certain weight are you charging them more? Or not letting them fly?”
Walman told CityNews the photo was snapped by her partner last week when he was boarding a flight home form Cancun to Vancouver.
“They weighed people in the open, right beside the gates to get on the plane,” she explained.
“People didn’t know they could have said no. No one knew.”
Waldman also sent a direct message on Twitter to the airline saying, “it’s a humiliating process, especially for passengers who are overweight and already face large stigmas while travelling. This is unacceptable and I have never encountered this with any another airline.”
CityNews reached out to Sunwing for a comment and was told the weigh-ins were part of a survey done every five years to determine how much weight their planes carry – a guideline set by Transport Canada.
“Over a two-week period in October, Sunwing conducted a trial at four Canadian airports across 23 flights selected at random, where a selection of boarding passengers were weighed,” a spokesperson for the airline said in email.
According to the airline, gate agents were told to reinforce to passengers that their participation was on a voluntary basis, and no personal information was connected to this data.
Canada’s regulatory body for transportation policies and programs requires airlines to report standard weight of passengers and loads their aircrafts carry every few years.
“Surveys are not mandatory, but they are one of the tools air operators can use to meet this requirement,” a spokesperson from Transport Canada said.
Air Canada told CityNews they haven’t weighed their passengers before flights in the past, and they’re not considering implementing this practice in the near future.
