Hawaiian Airlines has come under fire recently after they allegedly weighed some of their customers before allowing them to board the plane.

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This came after the Airline announced its new policy of weighing passengers before they are allocated seats in order to “help distribute weight across the cabin.”

One of the businessmen who was weighed before getting on the carrier for the flight between Pago Pago, American Samoa and Honolulu, said that he was outraged at the new policy which “borders on discrimination.” Avamua David Haleck said that the airline has a monopoly on that particular route and they have only just now introduced this new rule:

The aircraft hasn’t changed in many many years so why has the weight distribution become important?

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Hawaiian Airlines has since spoken out and said it introduced the policy following a survey that showed substantial weight gains by its passengers over the years has led to higher than projected fuel burn by their airplanes. Well, if they carry on weighing their heavier customers they ain’t going to have any passengers left. Don’t get me wrong – I really dislike getting wedged between a pair of gigantic people on a flight, but I would still rather suffer that discomfort than for them to go through the humiliation of getting weighed before they board.

Hawaiian Airlines also said that it will amend its policy so that their larger passengers don’t get weighed, but they will still allocate certain seats to them so that the weight is evenly distributed. So they’re still going to have the shame of being put in the specially chosen ‘fat seats’. Slightly better but still a tad harsh don’t you think? I don’t know, maybe I’m being too sympathetic to the chubby community, and I guess airlines do need to ensure that the flights are safe.

For more on flying, why not have a go at our quiz and see if you can tell the difference between plane food and vomit. It’s a tough one.