Is fat you at the terminal gate? Airline wins fight to weigh passengers

This comes after a court case was needed to rule on whether the airline could get its passengers to step on the scales.

Hawaiian Airlines were confronted by customer backlash and accused of discriminating.

The airline stated that the policy was put in place after the company noticed that a particular flight was burning more fuel.

The airline then took the pro-active move of offering passengers the chance to partake in a voluntary survey, which involved them being weighed. The survey was conducted over a six-month period.

The survey found that passengers and their luggage on flights from Honolulu to Pago Pago weighed 30 pounds heavier than expected.

In response to the findings, Hawaiian Airlines scrapped pre-assigned seating and opted to spread its passengers around the cabin, making it possible to distribute the weight more evenly.

The airline has stated the move to weigh passengers and in turn being able to distribute the weight better, prevents the airline from limiting the number of seats available.