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May 31, 2023, 10:18am EDT
Oceania

Flying Air New Zealand? You might be stepping on a scale before your flight

An Air New Zealand Boeing 777-319 ER is pictured in Tallinn, Estonia, in 2019.
Anna Zvereva/Wikimedia Commons
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The News

Travelers flying out of Auckland might be weighed before they board their flights as Air New Zealand, the country’s flagship airline, conducts a large-scale survey to analyze the average weight of its flights.

The airline stresses that being weighed will be both optional and private.

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Know More

Guidelines from New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority stipulate that airlines must either carry out periodic surveys to determine the average weight of passengers, or accept standard weights as decided by the authority.

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Travelers who choose to take part in the survey will weigh themselves and their luggage separately. The weight won’t appear on screen, but will be loaded into Air New Zealand’s system anonymously.

In a statement, Alastair James, Air New Zealand’s load control improvement specialist, said: “We weigh everything that goes on the aircraft — from the cargo to the meals onboard, to the luggage in the hold.​ For customers, crew and cabin bags, we use average weights, which we get from doing this survey.”

The survey will run for one month until July 2. Air New Zealand last carried out the survey on domestic passengers in 2021.

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