The Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand has asked its national airline, Air New Zealand, to consider passengers departing on international flights from Auckland Airport from today (Thursday) until July 2.

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Air New Zealand said that the program, which it calls the "passenger weight survey", is actually a way to collect data on the weight load and its distribution on planes. "We will weigh everything that will be on the plane – from luggage to meals. For passengers and crew we will use normal weights," said Alastair James, a New Zealand airline's load control improvement specialist.

As part of the process, passengers will be asked to stand on a digital scale at the flight check-in station. After that, the information about their weight will be sent to the company headquarters. In addition, passengers will place their personal luggage on another identical scale for separate weighing.

Air New Zealand plane (photo: Instagram screenshot)

Still, weight is a personal thing that not everyone wants to reveal. In order to protect the privacy of the passengers, the airline claims to keep the data securely.

However, it turns out that this is not the first time that Air New Zealand has asked passengers to weigh themselves before boarding their flights. The residents of the country who flew with the company about two years ago, had to participate in a similar survey that checks their weight, and after the company wanted to apply the process to international flights as well, this was postponed due to the Corona epidemic.