A Berkshire tech start-up plans to weigh airline passengers to help save the industry more than £1 billion a year.
Fuel Matrix, based in Maidenhead, says it can discreetly weigh customers using pressure pads to more accurately calculate the amount of fuel required for a flight.
The data would then be destroyed upon landing.
At present the weight of an aircraft is estimated on general terms with men given a 93-kilogram figure and women 75kg, which is then added to the total weight of the luggage.
This means that airlines over-estimate the fuel needed, making planes heavier and less efficient.
Fuel Matrix says the system would reduce fuel costs and CO2 emissions.
“The capture of passenger weights is not complicated,” chairman and CEO Roy Fuscone told Lonely Planet. “A simple weighing device added to the current equipment will capture the weight and the software will register and transmit it in relation to a flight but not necessarily identified to a particular passenger.
“In addition it will help airports to restrict the expansion of their carbon footprints as they expand to accommodate the huge growth in demand from airlines and passengers.”