Airline Announces It Will Weigh Passengers Before Letting Them Fly

Uzbekistan Airways claims the new weighing procedure is for safety reasons

There aren’t many things about Mad Men that we wish were still to norm (racism, overt misogyny, smoking in literally any cramped space you can think of) but sometimes we do long for the glamour and elegance of air travel in the 1960s.

Okay, so maybe air stewardesses were still subject to some pretty awful sexism but there was definitely a sense of occasion and grandeur about getting on a plane and flying to some far flung destination – probably Spain.

But no. We are members of Generation Budget where we’ve all been tricked into thinking that getting up at 4am on a Tuesday to pay £50 for a cab to the middle of nowhere (Stansted) to get a flight full of drunk, lairy stag parties and/or screaming babies, all of whom are trying to navigate the issue of where the hell is everyone supposed to put their hand luggage because we’ll be damned if we’re paying £40 for a checked bag is totally worth £200.

And just when you thought air travel couldn’t get any worse, along comes Uzbekistan Airways.

The company have just announced that as well as weighing passengers’ suitcases before they get on the plane, they will be weighing the passengers too.

In a statement, they claimed that the new measures were for safety reasons:

"According to the rules of International Air Transport Association, airlines are obliged to carry out the regular procedures of preflight control passengers weighing with hand baggage to observe requirements for ensuring flight safety.”

However this theory was quickly debunked by an IATA spokesperson, who claimed to have no knowledge of any such rule.

Uzbekistan Airways have assured passengers that their weight will be kept confidential but didn’t mention what happens when an individual weighs over their ‘safety limit’.

What fresh hell is this.