Two businessmen from American Samoa have filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation because they were weighed before boarding a Hawaiian Airlines flight in Honolulu. The passengers were then assigned seats so that the plane’s load would be evenly distributed.
The airline says it was merely following the manufacturer’s guidelines for safely flying a Boeing 767 aircraft in an age when the average customer weighs more than in the past.
Flights to and from the American Samoa capital city of Pago Pago have been burning up a lot of fuel, a company spokesperson told The Telegraph, and that’s why rules were temporarily introduced barring passengers from reserving seats online and, in some cases, requiring them to step on the scales before takeoff.
But the businessmen who filed the complaint counter that the rules are discriminatory because they only apply to those flying to or from American Samoa—which, by the way, has the world’s highest percentage of obese adults (an incredible 74%).