Quote:
Originally Posted by LO 044
Can you explain the weight and balance issue. I'm really unsure how this works. A plane can carry x amount of passengers and x weight of cargo. The airline calculates what the maximum weight of each passengers luggage can be based on that don't they? It seems really awkward that people have to look at which aircraft they will fly on to make sure their bags get to their destination with them.
Not that United ever has great prices to Europe via ORD (unleast from my research, NW and AC easily beat them) but this becomes a factor if you're connecting to some far off place and you have to worry about your bags not making it.
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Others can probably do a much better job at this than I can but I will give it a stab.
Basically all aircraft can carry a maximum amount of weight, and this includes not only passengers and bags but also the weight of the plane itself and the weight of the fuel. The further a plane flies the more fuel it has to carry which is extra weight.
Anyhow based on how far the plane is flying, what route it is taking, what the winds aloft will be, and how many passengers are expected the airline will figure out how much fuel etc will be needed. They can then estimate the actual weight of the aircraft and whether or not they can fly that route given these conditions. Temperature, runway length etc will all be factored in to see if the plane can even take off (that is why you might see weight restrictions on hot days at airports at higher elevations). Anyhow, they use a standard weight for passengers and probably do the same with bags. When a plane is loaded, the passengers and cargo must be loaded so that the centre of gravity of the plane is within acceptable limits. That is the balance part.
Now imagine all of a sudden that everyone shows up with bulky baggage (maybe hockey bags or something), and also another 20 people will be on the flight than was originally thought. With the extra people and all the bulky and heavy baggage, they may not be able to load everything into the cargo holds, and even if they did things may not be balanced properly (maybe the weight is going to be too far forward or too far back). In order to be able to safely fly the plane they will need to leave some baggage behind so the plan can stay not only within it's weight limit, but also keep the load balanced properly within the plane.
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