Korean Air will soon weigh passengers and their carry-ons at the gate

Korea’s largest airline will soon be asking passengers how much they weigh.

But overweight passengers need not worry. They can still fly.

“Korean Air will be measuring the averageweight of passengers along with their carry-on items for flight safety,” South Korea’s flag-carrying airline posted on its website, saying the move follows local laws.

Airline employees will weigh passengers for domestic flights from Gimpo Airport in Seoul South Korea from Aug. 28 to Sept. 6, Korea JoongAng Daily reported. They will also weigh passengers at Incheon International Airport from Sept. 8 to 19.

“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 released in a statement.

The outlet reported airlines are bound to calculate standard passenger weights every five years, and that the average helps determine weight distribution on airplanes.

Korean Air jets fill the ramp at the airline's Seoul-Incheon International Airport hub in South Korea on a cloudy day in July, 2019.

Anonymous data

“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.”

The airline said that passengers and baggage will be weighed anonymously, and that passengers can opt out of stepping on the scale, the outlet reported.

The government agency did not immediately respond to USA TODAY.

To view baggage weight allowance for the airline’s domestic and international flights click here.

Following suit

Korean Air is following suit after Air New Zealand asked passengers on its international network to participate in a weight survey that began in late May and ended early last month.

The airline wrote in a media advisory that the survey is “essential to the safe and efficient operation of the aircraft” and required by the Civil Aviation Authority.

In 2021, Air New Zealand previously weighed customers on its domestic network. The lighter an airplane is, “the less work the engines have to do, the less fuel it uses, and the farther it can fly,” according to the National Air and Space Museum.

Contributing: Nathan Diller

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @nataliealund.