Heavier passengers squeeze cargo capacity

ALAN PEAT
FATTER PASSENGERS are bad news for airline profits and bad news for freight.
An interim study of passenger weight increases undertaken by South African Airways recently reveals that passengers are getting heavier as are the costs to the airline per flight.
Which also means that airfreight users are getting less capacity per flight, because the aircraft’s gross take-off weight is tightly fixed – and heavier passengers mean less cargo can be carried.
In a graphic released to FTW by SAA, there was a surprising consistency in the various figures for three of the flights chosen as guinea pigs in the survey where passengers were asked to voluntarily have themselves weighed at Johannesburg International Airport (JIA) prior to their departure.
The first was a Boeing 747-400 on the flight to London Heathrow, with 333 passengers aboard, and a 60% male to 40% female gender split. The second was an Airbus A340-200 on the JIA-Perth route, carrying 236 and with the same gender split. The third was a Boeing 737-800 flying JIA to Cape Town, with 157 passengers, and also 60/40 male-female.
All these test flights had the same average weight increases over the previous survey – from 91-kilograms to 97-kgs for men, and 72-kgs – 77-kgs for women.
In order, SAA calculated its losses per flight as +R3 747.00,
+ R2 414.12 and R228.84.
But the winner was a 333-seater Airbus, flying its passengers (again 60%-40%) to Hong Kong. This possibly confirmed that people of Chinese extraction are smaller than European or African stock, because the survey found actual average weight DROPS – of 91-kgs – 85-kgs for men and 72-kgs – 71-kgs for women. The other bright spot was that this flight actually showed a cost saving of –R3 357.71.
So, the latest diet fad. Chop suey and saki three times a day. Might not lose you weight, but will give you a Sino/Japanese kick.