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[cem_devecioglu]

 
 
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2264921/easyJet-passengers-forced-whip-round-pay-people-leave-overweight-plane.html

[aaronjb]

I love the comments on articles like that..





.. they make me want to never leave my house again, much less fly anywhere.

[cem_devecioglu]

I love the comments on articles like that..





.. they make me want to never leave my house again, much less fly anywhere.

Aaron , if we were on this plane no doubt they would kick us out

[Kevin Wood]

Sounds pretty typical for Easyjet. Cut margins to the bone and then the customer has to sort it out when it goes wrong.

[Kevin Wood]

I love the comments on articles like that..





.. they make me want to never leave my house again, much less fly anywhere.

Tolerance.
Understanding of the subject matter.

You expected to see these in a Daily Fail article, let alone the readers' comments?

[Varche]

Something doesn't add up with this story.

How did they know the plane was "300Kg " over weight? Do they have scales? 300Kg in the overall scale of the plane, fuel and passengers and luggage is a very very slender margin.

How does a plane cope when it has an abnormal number of high BMI men on board. e.g. Rugby players, OOFers etc? You don't get weighed on any flight I have been on. You don't have to say when you book how much you weigh. What happens if all 300 passengers decided to have a big meal before flying and not go to the toilet?

I would have told them, on behalf of the passengers, to take the trolley off with the riduculously highly priced "duty free" goods on. I bet that weighs 300 Kg.

My suspicion is they didn't have enough fuel on board to do a burn out of a take off due to saving money.

[cem_devecioglu]

Something doesn't add up with this story.

How did they know the plane was "300Kg " over weight? Do they have scales? 300Kg in the overall scale of the plane, fuel and passengers and luggage is a very very slender margin.

How does a plane cope when it has an abnormal number of high BMI men on board. e.g. Rugby players, OOFers etc? You don't get weighed on any flight I have been on. You don't have to say when you book how much you weigh. What happens if all 300 passengers decided to have a big meal before flying and not go to the toilet?

I would have told them, on behalf of the passengers, to take the trolley off with the riduculously highly priced "duty free" goods on. I bet that weighs 300 Kg.

My suspicion is they didn't have enough fuel on board to do a burn out of a take off due to saving money.

 
 
300 passengers will have duty free more than a ton I bet

[Rog]

Something doesn't add up with this story.

I agree. 300Kg is about three well-built (not huge) blokes.

I think that EJ had cut some corners somewhere and need to compensate elsewhere for safety, or maybe even regulatory, reasons.

I recall going on a plane over Grand Canyon and the pilot needed our weights, but that was a really small single propeller engined craft, not a passenger jet.

[Kevin Wood]

The flight crew would have had a maximum take off weight for the conditions that takes into account all the margins required to safely operate the aircraft. 1kg under that weight they will go. 1kg over, they don't. As simple as that.

I suspect the issue is that EJ simply operate too close to that figure. This is why you don't get whip rounds on other airlines. Exactly the same as the issue I had last year with them. Pilots didn't have enough flying hours left to make the 1 1/2 hour flight I was on. No backup crew available. Flight cancelled.

Here's a thought, though. Do you think it was just the passengers' baggage in the hold or a load of mail and other freight they were being paid to carry too? Wouldn't you expect the passengers to take priority?

Personally, I'd have asked them to take off the trolleys of food, perfume, duty free and all the other cr@p they were hoping to sell me on the flight.

[pscocoa]

On some internal flights in Costa Rica I used to have to be weighed - but so did everyone else. We had shale landing strips.

[Entwood]

The flight crew would have had a maximum take off weight for the conditions that takes into account all the margins required to safely operate the aircraft. 1kg under that weight they will go. 1kg over, they don't. As simple as that.

I suspect the issue is that EJ simply operate too close to that figure. This is why you don't get whip rounds on other airlines. Exactly the same as the issue I had last year with them. Pilots didn't have enough flying hours left to make the 1 1/2 hour flight I was on. No backup crew available. Flight cancelled.

Here's a thought, though. Do you think it was just the passengers' baggage in the hold or a load of mail and other freight they were being paid to carry too? Wouldn't you expect the passengers to take priority?

Personally, I'd have asked them to take off the trolleys of food, perfume, duty free and all the other cr@p they were hoping to sell me on the flight.

Absolutely correct KW ... and to elaborate on your question .. passengers are not "weighed" as we all know .. an average weight is assumed (used to be 185 lbs male 155 lbs female in my day ... no idea what it is in kilos or if its changed).

All cargo and baggage is weighed, fuel weight is ALWAYS known, as is APS (Aircraft Prepared for Service - oils/water/galley supplies etc etc) weight.

The max takeoff weight (MTOW) does vary however, given conditions. In the ice/snow/ poor visibility of recent days the MTOW will be reduced for performance reasons - usually the ability (or lack of it) to stop in the event of an aborted (abandoned) take-off.

The easiest way to reduce weight is throw passengers off .. no reweighing of anything .. you want to lose 600 lbs .. 4 men plus bags ..OFF .. dead simple. ...  any other method is time consuming and protracted ... and will lose you your takeoff "slot"... which means many hours delay and cost.

So EJ simply took the easiest and cheapest way IMHO .. as they always will...

[brendan1983]

Personally I think all flight cost/tickets should be based on your weight plus luggage. That way you for the fuel you use, and the airline know in advance how much you weigh and it would work out cheaper for me 

[Kevin Wood]

Personally I think all flight cost/tickets should be based on your weight plus luggage. That way you for the fuel you use, and the airline know in advance how much you weigh and it would work out cheaper for me 

In a culture where we can't even have different car insurance premiums for men and women I doubt that would go down too well.

[Rog]

Personally I think all flight cost/tickets should be based on your weight plus luggage. That way you for the fuel you use, and the airline know in advance how much you weigh and it would work out cheaper for me 

NO  NO  NO  !  !  !

Absolutely not, I could never afford to go anywhere          

[Varche]

The flight crew would have had a maximum take off weight for the conditions that takes into account all the margins required to safely operate the aircraft. 1kg under that weight they will go. 1kg over, they don't. As simple as that.

I suspect the issue is that EJ simply operate too close to that figure. This is why you don't get whip rounds on other airlines. Exactly the same as the issue I had last year with them. Pilots didn't have enough flying hours left to make the 1 1/2 hour flight I was on. No backup crew available. Flight cancelled.

Here's a thought, though. Do you think it was just the passengers' baggage in the hold or a load of mail and other freight they were being paid to carry too? Wouldn't you expect the passengers to take priority?

Personally, I'd have asked them to take off the trolleys of food, perfume, duty free and all the other cr@p they were hoping to sell me on the flight.

Absolutely correct KW ... and to elaborate on your question .. passengers are not "weighed" as we all know .. an average weight is assumed (used to be 185 lbs male 155 lbs female in my day ... no idea what it is in kilos or if its changed).

All cargo and baggage is weighed, fuel weight is ALWAYS known, as is APS (Aircraft Prepared for Service - oils/water/galley supplies etc etc) weight.

The max takeoff weight (MTOW) does vary however, given conditions. In the ice/snow/ poor visibility of recent days the MTOW will be reduced for performance reasons - usually the ability (or lack of it) to stop in the event of an aborted (abandoned) take-off.

The easiest way to reduce weight is throw passengers off .. no reweighing of anything .. you want to lose 600 lbs .. 4 men plus bags ..OFF .. dead simple. ...  any other method is time consuming and protracted ... and will lose you your takeoff "slot"... which means many hours delay and cost.

So EJ simply took the easiest and cheapest way IMHO .. as they always will...

Err no it isn't. Many flights I have been on they do not weigh your cabin bag. They do sometimes check it is within their size measurements. A common wheeze is to put heavy items in the cabin bag. Most are wheeled so don't look any heavier than their neighbour. We brought a sewing machine back this way.

I take your point about takeoffs and more importantly aborted take offs( I have been on a Ryanair aborted takeoff due to multiple engine bird strike just after it lifted off the ground) . But again surely airports and aircraft should have an ample (5%) safety margin as opposed to 300Kg. Say it was a Boeing 737. Their max take off weight is 79,010kg. So 300 represents an overload of 0.4% approx. 180 passengers all smuggling a 2Kg bag of sugar extra over their "10Kg) cabin bag allowance would bust that limit!