South African Airways (SAA) said on Tuesday in a statement that it has begun randomly weighing its passengers together with their hand luggage through a voluntary process at Johannesburg International airport.
A survey will be carried out on approximately 1 000 passengers travelling on SAA’s domestic, regional and international flights over the next two weeks.
The weighing is done to calculate the correct take-off weight of the airline’s aircraft, the statement said.
SAA said this is being done to comply with the Civil Aviation Authority’s regulations, as well as to ensure the safety of its passengers.
In the last survey in September 2003, SAA discovered that passengers’ weights were increasing as a result of some overstepping the maximum amount of hand luggage allowed on board.
One piece of hand luggage weighing not more than 7kg is permitted in economy class and two pieces of hand luggage weighing 7kg each are allowed in business class.
“This snap survey is SAA fine-tuning the previous results of 2003 and will establish whether passengers are adhering to the required standards. We have their safety in our hands and will not allow it to slacken,” said SAA CEO Khaya Ngqula.
The most recent survey showed that passengers are carrying an average of 10,1kg of hand luggage on all routes, which is an increase of 3,1kg compared with the previous survey held in 1997.
This survey also showed that the average male weight increased by 6kg from 91kg to 97kg, and female weight is up by 5kg from 72kg to 77kg. The average weights of children remained constant at 35kg. — I-Net Bridge