Finnair weighs Indian flyers, carry-on baggage at Helsinki airport
PTI|
Updated: Nov 05, 2017, 11.18 AM IST
NEW DELHI: The next time you fly Finnair out of Helsinki, the airline may request you to stand on a weighing scale with your carry-on (hand) baggage.
The European carrier, which has six and two flights a week to Delhi and Goa respectively, as its current India operations, has started collecting data at Helsinki airport "on passenger and carry-on luggage weights to update data that is used for aircraft load calculations". Aircraft weight is among the key factors used to correctly determine the amount of fuelling required for different flights.
Finnair's India GM Desmond Chacko told TOI the weighing is "purely voluntary and anonymous", and only the customer service agent sees the weighing result. Citing the same reason, he couldn't confirm whether India-bound passengers were also being weighed.
"Our intention is to gather enough data from our own network and own customers to verify that we have quality data in use for our calculations. This is why we have now, during Tuesday and Wednesday, asked around 180 customers to volunteer to be weighed with their carry-on luggage at Helsinki Airport, and it was great to see that so many people wanted to be a part of this study," Chacko said.
The airline expects to weigh about 2,000 flyers till next spring to get statistically accurate data from its network. It will be done on flights to different routes and also from different seasons because in winter people have heavy coats, while in summer they wear lighter clothing.
Finnair's purpose for the weight study is to determine whether it has accurate data on passenger standard weights used for determining aircraft performance and loading calculations.
The European carrier, which has six and two flights a week to Delhi and Goa respectively, as its current India operations, has started collecting data at Helsinki airport "on passenger and carry-on luggage weights to update data that is used for aircraft load calculations". Aircraft weight is among the key factors used to correctly determine the amount of fuelling required for different flights.
Finnair's India GM Desmond Chacko told TOI the weighing is "purely voluntary and anonymous", and only the customer service agent sees the weighing result. Citing the same reason, he couldn't confirm whether India-bound passengers were also being weighed.
"Our intention is to gather enough data from our own network and own customers to verify that we have quality data in use for our calculations. This is why we have now, during Tuesday and Wednesday, asked around 180 customers to volunteer to be weighed with their carry-on luggage at Helsinki Airport, and it was great to see that so many people wanted to be a part of this study," Chacko said.
The airline expects to weigh about 2,000 flyers till next spring to get statistically accurate data from its network. It will be done on flights to different routes and also from different seasons because in winter people have heavy coats, while in summer they wear lighter clothing.
Finnair's purpose for the weight study is to determine whether it has accurate data on passenger standard weights used for determining aircraft performance and loading calculations.
