Canadian passengers pack on the pounds in winter

According to airline regulations, Canadians weigh more in winter – six pounds more, to be exact.

The Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) sets out the standardized measurements airlines must use to calculate the weight and balance of every flight.

In winter, airline personnel are instructed to add six pounds to each male or female passenger over the age of 12, to account for “seasonal variations.”

The standard summer weight is 200 pounds for a male passenger and 165 pounds for a female passenger, the manual, put out by Transport Canada, says.

During winter, that goes up to 206 pounds for men and 171 pounds for women.

For planes that carry 12 passengers or fewer, standardized measurements are not good enough — each passenger has to go on the scale to get an exact reading.

“The risk of embarrassment is not a reason for risking safety or crossing weight limits,” the manual says.

If scales aren’t available, or if a passenger refuses to be weighed, personnel are to just ask passengers what they weigh – but they’re not supposed to believe what you tell them. The manual tells them to “add 4.5 kg (10 lbs.) to the disclosed value.”

And if a passenger won’t voluntarily disclose their weight, the air operator has to give the passenger a once-over and take their best guess, says the most recent AIM, which went into effect this month.

The weight guidelines had to be updated in 2005 because Canadians are getting fatter.

Statistics Canada figures show a steady rise in obesity in this country. In the 1978/79 Canada Health Survey, the proportion of Canadian adults (18-79) considered to be obese was 13.8 per cent. In 2004 it was up to 23.1 per cent. By 2013, nearly two-thirds (62 per cent) of Canadian adults were overweight or obese.

But it’s not that the airlines are trying to fat-shame anyone. Getting the weight and balance right is a crucial safety procedure.

“There have been numerous accidents in Canada related to overweight aircraft,” the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) said in an Oct 2004 report.

“At least five of these accidents involved small aircraft where discrepancies between the standard and actual weight of passengers contributed to the overweight condition and the accident.”

Four of those accidents were fatal, killing a total of 24 people. Ten people died in the crash of Georgian Express Flight 126, a Cessna Caravan 208B that was flying from Pelee Island to Windsor, Ont., on Jan. 17, 2004.

In that case, the TSB said, “the calculated weight for the people on board using standard weight was 1,833 lbs.; the actual weight of the persons on board with their clothes was 2,400 lbs. — a difference of 567 lbs.”

As a result of that investigation and others, the TSB recommended changes to the weight regulations.

“Recent studies have shown that the current values for standard passenger weights are no longer representative of the general population and that actual passenger weights may be routinely underestimated.”

As to why Canadians are six pounds heavier in winter?

It’s not the eggnog and sugarplums, it’s all those parkas and mukluks.

The total weight assigned to each passenger is the sum of their “stripped” weight plus their personal clothing and carry-on baggage allowances.

“Personal clothing allowances are designated as 3.6 kg (8 lbs.) in summer clothing 6.4 kg (14 lbs) in winter.”