Passengers weighed alongside luggage in Hawaii?

Hawaiian Airlines has received the green light from the U.S. department of Transportation for weighing passengers alongside their luggage before boarding.

When Hawaiian Airlines started weighing passengers this year, in addition to the usual luggage weight checkup, numerous complaints were filed by dissatisfied customers. However the U.S. Department of Transportation has approved their decision, the Daily Mirror reports.

Instead of letting passengers choose seats on their own, the airline now allocates seats to them so that the total weight would be distributed equally.

The Hawaiian airline claims that this may reduce the possibility of aircraft falling down.

A dissatisfied passenger wanted to know why the safety issue had appeared so suddenly.

– Have we been unsafe while in air all this time? – the passenger wondered.

Others believe that the new rule amounts to racial discrimination, as the practice only pertains to flights to Pago Pago. The route is mostly flown by Samoans, one of the fattest peoples in the world.

However, as the company’s representative emphasized in his statement for the Independent, this is merely a six-month research project, which has been recently completed. The practice of weighing passengers will not continue. Nevertheless, this opens a possibility for other airlines to introduce similar rules.

Hawaiian Airlines

airplane luggage

weighing airline passengers

weighing luggage

US Department of Transportation

Pago Pago

Samoans

Hawaii