Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| Korean Air B787-9 / Courtesy of Korean Air |
By Kim Hyun-bin
Korean Air will weigh passengers and their carry-on luggage when boarding domestic and international flights in compliance with aviation laws. The airline plans to apply a weight standard on passengers, including their carry-on baggage, with domestic passengers at Gimpo International Airport from Aug. 28 to Sept. 6, and international passengers at Incheon International Airport from Sept. 8 to Sept. 19.
The collected data will be anonymous and used for safety operations, according to the airline. Passengers who do not wish to participate in the measurements can inform the staff at the time of boarding.
In a local survey conducted in the summer of 2017, the standards were set at 81 kg for adult males and 69 kg for adult females. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recommends 88.4 kg for adult males and 70.3 kg for adult females.
Aircraft typically carry about 1 percent more fuel than necessary. Accurate passenger weight measurements can reduce additional fuel consumption, potentially saving around $1 billion annually.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's "Aircraft Weight and Balance Management Standards," airlines must measure passenger standard weights at least every five years or as needed and calculate average values.
These figures are applied when determining aircraft weight and weight distribution. Korean Air passengers will have their weights measured along with their carry-on baggage in front of the gate before boarding.
Some airlines like Hawaiian Airlines and Finnair, among others, also measure the weight of passengers to factor into their flights. Domestic airlines in Korea, such as T'way Air and Jeju Air, have also conducted weight measurements in the past in 2018.
In addition, the cumulative worth of unredeemed mileage points held by Korea's two primary air carriers has reached 3.4 trillion won ($2.5 billion) as of the first half of 2023. The increase comes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic causing disruptions in international travel that led to extensions of mileage expiration dates.
The unused mileage points at the two companies, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, exhibited a 17.4 percent surge compared to the same period in 2019. This data has been sourced from the regulatory filings of these companies.
Of the total, Korean Air accounted for 2.4 trillion won, while Asiana Airlines accounted for 942 billion won of the aggregate sum.
During the height of the COVID-19 crisis, the government negotiated with the airlines to extend mileage expiration dates by three additional periods, effectively lengthening them up to 30 months.
