In the spring of 2023, Air New Zealand (ANZFF) made major waves in the aviation space after announcing that it would launch an "International Passenger Weight Survey" in which passengers boarding certain long-haul flights would be asked to step on a scale at check-in.
While the experiment was requested by the country's Civil Aviation Authority (the scale result was not shared with the check-in agent and went into an anonymized data pool intended to provide the airline with information about the plane's overall weight), Air New Zealand recently once again found itself embroiled in a weight-related scandal after two passengers claimed they were removed from a flight for being "too big."
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The incident occurred on a short domestic flight from Napier in the eastern part of New Zealand's North Island to the capital of Auckland further northwest on Friday, March 15.
WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images
Passenger describes: 'I just couldn't believe what was happening to me'
Angel Harding, a Maori woman who was traveling back home from a Hui (a Maori term for an informal gathering of indigenous people), told local news outlet 1News that she and a friend had initially boarded a plane that was ordered to turn back around during taxiing.
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All the passengers had to get off but Harding and her travel companion were not permitted to reboard based on what she claims was their size.
"I kind of was in shock and I moved forward, and she started yelling to me that the pilot can’t take off unless all the arm rests were down, and she was quite aggressive to me," Harding said of her interaction with the flight attendant as the plane was turning around. "She was speaking to me in an aggressive manner. I just couldn't believe what was happening to me."
Harding further described that the flight attendant slammed down the armrest in a way that hurt her left arm after coming up and starting to scold her and her friend for sitting improperly.
"She said, 'Don't you think you should be seated if the plane is in motion?'" Harding described. "And then [the flight attendant] looked at both of us and said, 'I can get you both kicked off this flight.'" She also said that the flight attendant repeatedly told them that they should have purchased "two seats each."
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After being left at the gate, the two women were reportedly told to book two seats each on the same flight whose earliest availability was nearly 48 hours later on Sunday.
After Harding and the friend said they couldn't afford this type of expense, the airline eventually covered their return tickets, put them up in accommodation and gave them lounge access as it worked to figure out where communication broke down. But Harding said she was still told that this was an exception and that she would need to book more than one seat if she wanted to fly Air New Zealand in the future.
Another traveler who was on the same flight said that she saw "them both crying" in embarrassment as the plane pulled away and felt incredibly "sad leaving them behind."
New Zealand could not be immediately reached for comment on the situation.
