No need to worry if you’re overweight. You can still fly.
“Korean Air will be measuring the average weight of passengers along with their carry-on items for flight safety,” the airline shared on its website that this action is in compliance with regulations set by the country.
From Aug. 28 to Sept. 6, airline personnel will weigh passengers on domestic flights departing from Gimpo Airport in Seoul, South Korea, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily. From Sept. 8 to 19, travelers will also be weighed at Incheon International Airport.
“Korea Air will weigh passengers along with other airlines in Korea to provide data required by Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT)” to update its “Aircraft Weight and Balance Management Standards,” the airline said in a statement.
According to the news agency, airlines must calculate the standard weight of passengers every five years, and the resulting average is used to define aircraft weight distribution.
“Korean Air passengers will be asked to step on scales with their carried-on items at each boarding gate,” an airline official told the outlet Monday. “The data collated anonymously will be utilized for survey purposes and doesn’t mean overweight passengers will need to pay more.”
According to the website, the airline said passengers and their luggage would be weighed anonymously and that they could choose not to get on the scale.
Click here to view the airline’s domestic and international baggage weight allowance.
Korean Air is following Air New Zealand’s lead, which in late May and early June encouraged travelers on its international network to take part in a weight survey.
The survey, according to the airline’s media advisory, is “essential to the safe and efficient operation of the aircraft” and is mandated by the Civil Aviation Authority.
Customers on its domestic network were already weighed by Air New Zealand in 2021. According to the National Air and Space Museum, the lighter an aircraft is, “the less work the engines have to do, the less fuel it uses, and the farther it can fly.”