Honululu, Hawaii: A US airline has won the right to weigh its passengers over a period of six months in order to save fuel after the airline company discovered that an average passenger and his carry-on luggage was heavier than expected.
According to a report in the Independent, Hawaii Airlines will no longer allow pre-booked seating arrangement for travellers flying between Honululu and Samoa.
Instead, travellers will be assigned seats when they check in based on their body weight and carry-in luggage. The airlines said that the move will help them to ensure that the weight of passengers and their luggage is evenly distributed.
Moreover, the airlines said that they will keep one seat open in each row to accommodate children below the age of 13.
However, some of the travellers have termed the policy as 'discriminatory' as it affected the people travelling only from Honululu to the Samoan capital of Pago Pago. Since most of the travellers belong to Samoa which has the highest obesity rate in the world, people found the policy unfair.
So far, US Department of Transportation have received six complaints on the issue, but they have been rejected by the officials who said that the airline's policy could prevent crash landing.
