Airline starts weighing passengers at the gate

Editor’s Note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel’s weekly newsletter. In a project by European carrier Finnair at its Helsinki Airport hub, volunteer passengers are being weighed at the departure gate in order to allow the airline to refine weight estimates for planes before takeoff. Tallqvist said that the airline is collating data about the average weight of passengers and their hand luggage “for the purpose of aircraft balance and performance calculations that are needed for the safe operation of flights.” Heavier in winter Finnair is collecting the data from passengers boarding at Helsinki airport. “While airlines know the weight of all other aspects, the weight of customers and their carry-on baggage is calculated using average weights confirmed by the Civil Aviation Authority,” said Tallqvist. And while many passengers would rather keep their weight a secret, Satu Munnukka, Finnair’s head of ground processes, assured nervous passengers in a statement that “the collected data is not linked in any way to the customer’s personal data.” Munnukka added: “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.