The national carrier of South Korea is proceeding with the measure of weighing passengers on its planes, following an order from the country’s Ministry of Transport.

Korean Air, the country’s largest airline, has announced that it will now measure the average weight of passengers and their carry-on bags “for flight safety” both at the counter and at each boarding gate.

The passenger scale measure is in effect from today until mid-September for those flying Korean Air from Seoul’s two largest airports, Gimpo and Incheon.

As there was backlash over this measure, Korean Air finally clarified that a) overweight people will not pay more and b) the passenger has the right to refuse to step on the scale.

The airline followed suit example of Air New Zealand which in June became the first case of an airline that, apart from the luggage we take in the cabin, also weighed the passengers before the departure of international flights.

As with Air New Zealand and the South Korean airline, officials said the passenger data to be weighed would be anonymous, not made public and used only for research purposes.