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Airlines may plan to weigh passengers for safety reasons

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Looks like airlines may begin weighing passengers before their flights in the future. This potential new component of flying is precaution of the aircrafts being overloaded with overweight people.

Due to the new FAA advisory, the FAA is planning to require airline passengers to be weighed on a scale at the airport or share how much they weigh before boarding a flight. The advisory pointed out that the weight of an average American passenger has increased by about 12% over the past few years, notes public interest law professor John Banzhaf.

Weight and balance has always been a topic of conversation when it comes to airlines. Currently the standard numbers used to determine weight and balance are outdated which makes them unsafe to use since the obesity rate is increasing. 

Weighing selected passengers at the airport should give an accurate number of the average passengers weight.

To conduct this study, a random survey would be held which included passengers being weighed at the gates. The survey would be voluntary and passengers can refuse to be weighed. It’s not clear if the passengers would be penalized for opting out of the survey. 

Airlines would need to go through this process at least every three years to get an accurate study on the impact of weighing the passengers. The change should give the aircrafts more information on seat adjustments and could include more legroom but ticket prices could be affected.

Airlines are not sure exactly how the process would work at the moment but they are working to take every precautionary measure to make flights safer for all passengers. 

The process may vary among different carriers, airlines. 

Many airlines have been trying to save with the many ongoing and outgoing flights. Since this may take awhile, the FAA may begin serving beer only in first class (210 lbs), or removing paint from the fuselage (440 lbs).

This new process could potentially improve profits, and can lead up to increasing add on additional fees for checked bags, overweight baggage, preferred seats, on-board food, etc.

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