Korean Air starts weighing passengers at check-in

Since yesterday, the national carrier of South Korea, Korean Air start weigh at check-in not only the luggage of passengers, but also themselves. The company complies with the order of the Ministry of Land Resources, Infrastructure and Transport, which made such a decision for the sake of “ensuring the safety of air travel.”

The security pilot will run for three weeks at Gimpo Airport until September 6 for domestic flights, and at Incheon Airport from September 8 to 19 for international flights. Passenger weight information is said to help airlines consider aircraft loading and weight distribution for greater flight safety. However, passengers can refuse to be weighed by notifying an airline employee.

The South Korean airline has become the second airline in the world to take such a step. In June, passengers were weighed by the New Zealand Air New Zealand – also “for the sake of flight safety.” The results of such a pilot project have not yet been reported.

Korean Air’s initiative has angered many passengers and puzzled some aviation experts. Passengers considered this is an interference with their privacy and consider such measures to be humiliating. And the experts notethat the presence of overweight passengers on board is unlikely to seriously affect flight safety, since liners are built with a margin of carrying capacity.

Evgeniy Khvostik