It is important to calculate accurate weight and balance, and therefore the center of gravity of an aircraft for safe, efficient flight. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) establishes average weights for passengers, checked baggage, and carryon baggage for airlines to use when determining the weight and balance on an aircraft.
The FAA uses data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES, to determine the estimated weights of passengers. That average weight is updated periodically, and changes seasonally.
Airlines may choose to conduct their own survey in markets in which they believe weights differ materially from FAA averages. Three years ago, in coordination with, and on the recommendation of the FAA, Hawaiian Airlines elected to conduct such a survey for selected routes including our Pago Pago service because our projected fuel consumption was lower than the actual consumption, indicating a possible weight discrepancy. We eliminated other possible factors that could explain the difference in fuel consumption such as weather, flight routing and wind before beginning the weight survey.
We did similar weight surveys in our Asian markets, where the projected fuel consumption was higher than actual consumption. We just completed the new triennial survey in Japan.
The weighing exercise will conclude when we have collected data on some 3,000 passengers, which we estimate will take about four months. Passengers can opt out of being weighed.
Since this is about weight distribution throughout the cabin, even if the carry-on weight is reduced for this route, the restrictions would still need to be in place.
No. Individual passenger weights are not relevant to us.
That may occur in some situations and our agents will make every effort to accommodate passengers in seats that are satisfactory to them.
Because the Airbus A330 has different cabin layout than the Boeing 767 (which was used on the PPG/HNL route previously) we were able to restore advance seat selection when we changed aircrafts.