A UK company wants to weigh airline passengers at airports

British start-up Fuel Matrix wants to weigh passengers before they board their flights.

The UK company has proposed weighing passengers when they check in, in order to allow airlines to more accurately calculate the amount of fuel required for a flight.

Brian Wilson, aviation expert from airlineinsider.com.au, told 3AW Drive that the company’s proposition isn’t financially viable.

“When you start to average everything out, what you might save in the air, or what you might save by taking on 100 kilos less fuel, you’re actually going to end up spending by having to wait for the plane to be fueled because all of those weights wouldn’t be calculated until the passengers check in,” he said.

“In all good start ups, the first rule you’ve got to have is to oversimplify the problem so you can justify your own solution. I think that’s what we’ve got here.”

Currently, most airlines operate on weight estimates of 88 kilograms for men and 70 kilograms for women.

Fuel Matrix isn’t the first company to propose weighing passengers. Samoa Air began charging passengers based on their weight in 2013.