Beginning Monday, passengers flying on Korean Air could also be requested to step on a scale earlier than boarding their flight.

The train, which is able to final about three weeks, is required by regulation and applies to all Korean flag carriers, a Korean Air consultant instructed CNBC.

The regulation requires airways to weigh passengers and their carry-on baggage a minimum of each 5 years and is “essential for security of flight operations,” the consultant instructed CNBC.

The announcement was met with backlash from the general public, in keeping with native media.

A discover detailing the train — set to start at Gimpo Worldwide Airport Monday, adopted by Incheon Airport subsequent month — has been faraway from the airline’s web site, resulting from “adequate discover and media protection,” in keeping with the airline.

“Undoubtedly not,” stated Vance Hilderman, CEO of the aviation security firm Afuzion.

No less than not for the aim of security, he stated.   

“In the event you’re at a small Bombardier, a small Embraer jet, and we had 10 very overweight folks … it may make a small distinction,” he stated. “On industrial plane, something from a 737 and above you understand, 120 folks, we have now it in-built.”

Aviation software program can modify for weight modifications, air density and different components, which is why security is not compromised even in conditions the place passenger make-up is atypical, comparable to an early morning flight of principally businessmen, who are likely to weigh greater than the common traveler, he stated.

Total, a major weight enhance per passenger can be eclipsed by the burden of gasoline, cargo and the plane itself, stated Hilderman. “Gasoline is 20 instances greater than the passenger weight,” he stated.

However Shem Malmquist, an teacher at Florida Tech’s School of Aeronautics, stated random weight samples are a good suggestion.

“We use common weights of passengers, however individuals are getting loads heavier,” he stated. “300 people who weigh greater than common can put an airplane considerably over weight, and all of our efficiency calculations — runway size, climb, impediment clearance, touchdown distances, altitude capabilities — all are depending on weight, amongst different issues.”

Hilderman agrees that individuals are getting larger, however he stated passengers now differ in different methods too.

“Individuals are getting heavier. So are Chinese language, so are Koreans,” he stated. “However we’re additionally flying youthful … so it is truly offset the common human’s weight enhance.”

A examine printed in 2019 within the Journal of Transport & Well being discovered that areas with increased weight problems prevalence “could start to see considerably compromised security margins if rising weight developments proceed.”

Jose Silva, an affiliate professor at Australia’s RMIT College’s College of Engineering and one of many examine’s authors, instructed CNBC that he thinks airways are reluctant to weigh passengers as a result of delicate nature of the subject.

“There may be additionally a lack of know-how of the security positive factors which might be obtained if there have been extra correct means to determine the passengers’ weight, as an alternative of counting on requirements,” he stated.

A whistleblower grievance filed in 2021 alleges that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has failed to acknowledge issues of safety brought on by counting on common passenger or baggage weights that now not mirror the U.S. inhabitants.

Air New Zealand weighed passengers in June for causes, it stated, associated to security and gasoline effectivity.

Finnair did the identical in 2017, and Hawaiian Air has carried out a number of passenger weight workouts on flights between Honolulu and American Samoa. (The now defunct Samoa Air used to cost passengers by their weight, in keeping with Reuters.)

Flyers in america probably will not be weighed, stated Hilderman, though an FAA advisory round printed in 2019 said that airways can weigh passengers.

It is a totally different story in Europe, the place carriers comply with European Union Aviation Security Company (EASA) rules.

EASA weighed almost 23,000 passengers in 2008 and 2009 and located that common passenger weight had elevated by 3 to five kilograms (6.6 to 11 kilos). A subsequent report printed in 2022 discovered that imply passenger weight elevated barely since 2009, for a mean of 82 kg (181 kilos) for males and 68 kg (149 kilos) for girls.

Periodic weight assessments — of passengers and different gadgets on board — will help airways decide if weight estimates are nonetheless correct to offset the quantity of cargo they carry, stated Hilderman.

However “there’s a bit of extra to this thriller,” he added.

“In Europe, they’re a bit of extra rigorous about particular person rights with privateness,” he stated. “With EASA, they need to shield the passengers and say: Look, the passengers are getting bigger, so airways, we wish you to supply a minimal pitch distance in your seats.”

Business airline seating relies on common passenger weight from the Fifties to Nineteen Seventies, Hilderman stated. Since then, folks have gotten larger, however airline seats have dwindled, he stated — “29 inches in some circumstances, it is completely ridiculous.”

Passenger dimension on planes is a controversial matter — with outsized flyers lodging discrimination allegations over Lilliputian airplane aisles and seat sizes, and smaller vacationers publicly venting about seat encroachment.  

However not like different industries that service heavy folks — from makers of chairs to bogs to amusement park rides — the airline trade hasn’t enlarged seats.

“Some have proposed that overweight passengers be required to pay for 2 seats with a view to not make different passengers uncomfortable, however that lets the airways escape any accountability,” stated Nick Gausling, a shopper companies enterprise marketing consultant and managing director of Romy Group LLC.

Gausling famous that whereas different industries have been pressured to prioritize buyer expertise, “customers have little or no option to take their enterprise elsewhere” with regards to airways.

Tigress Osborn, the manager director of the Nationwide Affiliation to Advance Fats Acceptance, instructed CNBC that almost all main airways have responded with three choices for obese vacationers: pay for pricier tickets that include larger seats, buy a second seat, or keep house.

“Fats folks should journey for pleasure similar to everybody else, and we additionally have to do not forget that air journey is for work, for household obligations, and for different tasks, too,” she stated. “Our taxes assist assist this trade, and we should be accommodated safely and comfortably, with entry to accessible seating in any respect worth ranges.”

Hilderman stated airways can promote second seats to plus-size vacationers at a closely discounted price.

Or they will reserve half a dozen seats for bigger folks, which passengers may privately register for on-line, utilizing peak and weight particulars from their driver’s licenses, he stated.

These seats might be offered at a small surcharge, and if not booked by certified passengers the week earlier than the flight, launched to anybody keen to pay for them, he added.

As as to if airways will enhance seat sizes for everybody, Hilderman stated that whereas it is mathematically doable, it is not sensible.

“Fuselage diameters have been predetermined,” he stated, referencing the primary physique of the plane. “We at present have 29,000 industrial plane flying, and we solely make about 1,500 per 12 months, so it might take 20 years to switch your entire fleet.”

Refitting planes with wider seats means narrowing the aisle, which is already a good squeeze, he stated. To widen the aisle, one seat from each row would must be eliminated, leading to a 20-25% ticket worth enhance throughout the board, he stated.

“Most individuals do not have a look at what sort of plane they’re flying, they usually don’t know what the seat pitch or width is,” stated Hilderman. “They’re merely shopping for on worth — and the airways know that.”

Arnold Barnett, a administration science and statistics professor on the MIT Sloan College of Administration, instructed CNBC that almost all flyers are keen to endure present seat sizes in return for decrease fares.  

If seating modified, “airfares must go up, and flying would turn into unaffordable to passengers on restricted budgets.”

For a lot of, a good airline seat is best than a seat on a bus, he stated.