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Airlines Ponder Weighing Passengers at Check-In to Curb Fuel Costs

posted by martyb on Thursday April 25 2019, @07:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the Privacy-is-like-virginity-dept dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

For a long time airlines has estimated the weight of passengers to determine how much fuel is required for a flight. Now a bunch of boffins have come up with a way to weigh passengers discreetly so airplane fuel can be tailored to the flight. This system would of course keep this data confidential.

I wonder if they'll add an autocharge to the passenger's credit card if they are overweight or a refund if they are under the average weight.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by b0ru on Thursday April 25 2019, @09:49AM (4 children)

    by b0ru (6054) on Thursday April 25 2019, @09:49AM (#834676)

    IME, planes are refueled before passengers board for the sake of safety e.g. in the event of ESD igniting fuel and cooking them. I doubt this is something that will ever change, given how obstinate aerospace safety laws are to change.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by isostatic on Thursday April 25 2019, @10:25AM (3 children)

    by isostatic (365) on Thursday April 25 2019, @10:25AM (#834685) Journal

    Not always, sometimes you board and the seatbelt signs are off and they tell you not to fasten them because they're still refueling.

    Of course by the time that the gate closes and doors fueling has long finished, so weighing at that point doesn't really help.

    • (Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Thursday April 25 2019, @11:30AM (2 children)

      by pkrasimirov (3358) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 25 2019, @11:30AM (#834701)

      > Of course by the time that the gate closes and doors fueling has long finished, so weighing at that point doesn't really help.

      I think it could help.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider [wikipedia.org]

      • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday April 25 2019, @02:07PM (1 child)

        by isostatic (365) on Thursday April 25 2019, @02:07PM (#834747) Journal

        The problem there wouldn't have been fixed if they'd weighed and found they were a little short. From memory, the problem there was they effectively asked for X gallons and got X litres. Indeed they measured the fuel several times, but they used the wrong numbers to calculate how much they actually had.

        • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 25 2019, @02:19PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 25 2019, @02:19PM (#834758)

          Well, if the US would finally switch to the metric system then the whole world could be doing it wrong.