In Reply to: Your view posted by miss ford on Monday, 29. January 2007 at 14:51 Bali Time:
After checking the weight of passengers� bags, Qantas� announced it intends to start checking the weight of its passengers, Sydney Morning Herald reported. Journalist Alexander Smith said in the report that travelers at Sydney Airport are being asked to step onto the scales with their hand luggage to help Qantas update its decade-old passenger weight data.
The airline said the study was purely a statistical exercise,� but the Civil Aviation Authority, which approves the amount of weight airlines can carry, said that the average Australia was getting heavier.
�People are getting bigger, or should I say, more well nourished,�� authority spokesman Peter Gibson told the Herald.
In 1988, the average Australia male passenger weight 823 kilograms (181 pounds.) and the average female between 66.1 kg. (145 lbs.) and 71 kg. (156 lbs.), CASA figures say.
Now more than half of Australian adults and a quarter of children are overweight or obese, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development says.
The newspaper said that aircraft manufacturer Boeing has recognized change in size and has designed its new-generation plane, the 7E7, with wider seats, aisles and toilets.
A Qantas spokesman,� Simon Rushton, stressed that the review was� not a suggestion that the passengers were fat. �This is not about obesity; it�s about updating our weight data,� he told the Herald.
The survey, which started at Sydney�s domestic