Japan Airlines scheduled a Boeing 737-800 to take several sumo wrestlers from Haneda Airport in Tokyo and Itami Airport in Osaka to Amamo Oshmi, an island in the far south. The airline however was forced to arrange an extra flight at short notice as its two planes were at risk of surpassing their weight limits due to the number of Sumo wrestlers scheduled for the flight.
Airlines on average allow 70kg per person for their weight calculations but Sumo Wrestlers have an estimated weight of 120 kilogrammes. The airline concluded that the planes couldn’t carry sufficient fuel with the passenger load the Guardian reported.
The Amami airport could also not accommodate a bigger aircraft, forcing Japan Airlines to lay an additional aircraft for 27 wrestlers, including 14 who had to fly from Itami to Haneda to board another flight.
“It is extremely unusual for us to operate special flights due to the weight restrictions on this aircraft,” a JAL spokesperson told the regional newspaper the Minami-Nippon Shimbun. The airline also laid additional flights to take the sumo wrestlers home after the tournament ended on Sunday.
In 2014, a picture of sumo wrestlers packed onto a small passenger plane went viral. Later, the men from the Hakkaku stable in Tokyo clicked themselves as they were stuffed together on a bus on their way to a summer training camp.
