Hey Fatties: Airline Announces It Will Start Weighing Passengers

Do you need to lose 10,15, or 30 pounds? One airline will soon know all about your problems thanks to a new weigh-in before take-off. 

A Finnish-based airline, Finnair, announced on Monday that it will collect weight data on passengers AND their carry-on luggage "to optimise Finnair's current aircraft balance calculations." 

Now, I know what you're thinking: This is a total invasion of privacy! Airlines don't have a right to know how many chicken wings and draft beers I've been crushing!

Calm down. 

A Finnair passenger jet flies through the clouds over London, England. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images)

Finnair says this program will be on a voluntary basis. Customers will be asked if they would be willing to be weighed, with their carry-on, at the departure gate where a desk agent would collect the data. 

"We use the weighing data for the average calculations required for the safe operation of flights, and the collected data is not linked in any way to the customer's personal data," Satu Munnukka, Head of Ground Processes at Finnair, said.  

"We record the total weight and background information of the customer and their carry-on baggage, but we do not ask for the name or booking number, for example. Only the customer service agent working at the measuring point can see the total weight, so you can participate in the study with peace of mind." 

Trust the airline, they say they don't want to weight shame you. They just want to balance out the plane. 

"We weigh volunteer customers together with their carry-on baggage. In the measurement, we do not ask for personal data, but the total weight of the customer and carry-on baggage, the customer’s age, gender and travel class are recorded in the database. No information is collected that would allow participants to be identified," Munnukka added. 

The idea of weighing passengers isn't a new concept. Finnair ran a similar study in 2017 and Korean Air has dabbled in this world as well. 

Vance Hilderman, CEO of the aviation safety company Afuzion, told CNBC in 2023 that it's not reasonable to weigh customers out of safety concerns. "If you’re at a small Bombardier, a small Embraer jet, and we had 10 very obese people … it could make a small difference," Hilderman said. "On commercial aircraft, anything from a 737 and above you know, 120 people, we have it built in."

Are we close to airline seat assignments based on weight?

Passengers who are lucky enough to earn the right to ride on the Goodyear blimp cannot exceed 330 pounds. 

According to industry experts, airlines aren't ready to go down that road, but analysts say it's not out of the question to expect passengers to step on "pressure pads" in a bag drop area to calculate "zero-fuel weight" which would allow the airline to add the needed fuel for the weight that is flying. 

Yes, analysts say, we could be heading towards economy travelers being assigned seats based on weight. In fact, it has already happened on Hawaiian Airlines in 2017.