Hasselhoff also expressed concern that the now-voluntary program could become mandatory in the future.
A representative of the Finnish Pilots’ Association (FPA), which represents 1,400 professional pilots in Finland, responded to BBC Travel’s request for comment and said the FPA did not have any specific information on the policy at- beyond what is available on the Finnair website. The association, however, declared its support for the initiative.
“From what we understand, the objective is to re-evaluate the information used as standard weights for passengers and determine if they are still accurate or if there is a need to adjust the values,” said Lauri Soini , president of the Finnish Pilots Association. Safety and Security Committee, told BBC Travel.
Soini added that while Finnair knows the weight of all other aspects associated with the flight, it does not have precise data on the weight of passengers and their carry-on baggage. The airline made the same point in its press release on the program, explaining that it currently relies on average passenger and baggage weight data that it has collected and provided to the Travel Authority. civil aviation in 2017. The airline is required to update these figures. every five years, which is why it collects weight data again.
“This operation [will provide] more precise values for the various performance calculations,” continued Soini. “Weight plays a role, particularly in takeoff, landing and climb performance, as well as in the amount of fuel consumed by the aircraft during the flight. The heavier a plane is, the more fuel it consumes. »
All planes have limits on the total weight they can carry and take off with, added George Ferguson, global head of aerospace, defense and air transport research at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Having accurate weight information is also important for maintaining the plane’s center of gravity, because “you can’t put too much weight in the front or back of the plane,” Ferguson explained .
Although the planning assumptions for all of these calculations are currently based on average passenger weight and average carry-on weight, those averages have likely changed over time, he said. This may be especially true as airlines have implemented high fees for checking bags and more passengers are carrying as much as they can to avoid paying baggage fees, a added Ferguson.
That’s not all that’s likely to have changed over time: “As airlines become more and more low-cost and squeeze more and more people inside the plane , these tolerances become more critical,” Ferguson added.
“This is critical information for an airline to understand,” concludes Ferguson. “I hope that when it comes to safety, more people will buy in so the airline can recalibrate their expectations – because populations change over time and trends change over time.”
Finnair is not the first carrier to publicly collect weight information. Air New Zealand made headlines last year for leading a similar effort. In this case, passengers boarding flights from Auckland, New Zealand, were required to step on a scale before traveling overseas with the carrier. The program was then explained as a way to gather “real-world information.” Airline representatives told NPR that the information collection was mandated by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority.
Brian Sumers, founder and editor-in-chief of The Airline Observer, which is dedicated to covering airline business, said there is a large amount of information needed to fly a plane safely that the public can simply do not understand.
“A lot of mathematical calculations are required to ensure that an airliner can take off and fly long distances,” says Sumers. “First of all, every plane has a maximum takeoff weight. If it’s too heavy, it won’t be allowed to leave the gate. There’s also the question of when a plane takes off from the runway. A plane heavier needs more runway length before it can take off. can take off.”
“Airlines know what an empty plane weighs, but they need to understand the weight of everything they add to it – like fuel, bags, cargo and, of course, humans,” Sumers added . “They’re not looking to embarrass anyone. They just want – or need – accurate data.”
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