Air India has grounded 130 of their female flight attendants who were deemed to be ‘too fat to fly.’ Yikes! According to this article by the Telegraph, the flight attendants were asked to lose weight 6 months ago and when their BMIs were rechecked they were declared, “permanently unfit for their job as flight attendants” because they failed the reassessment.
Flight Attendants ‘Too Fat To Fly?’
“Air India last year warned 600 of its 3,500 cabin crew to lose weight within six months or risk being taken off flights and given a job on the ground. The airline now plans to remove about 130 from cabin crew duty because their body mass index (BMI) levels remain above the prescribed limit.
A BMI is a measure of body fat based on a person’s height and weight.
The airline said that the “normal” BMI for an air hostess is between 18 and 22, “overweight” between 22 and 27, and “obese” for a value above 27. For male attendants the brackets were 18 to 25, 25 to 30, and above. The NHS says a “healthy” BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9.”
You can read the full article here, Telegraph.
Bottom Line
Sounds brutal for these flight attendants; what do you think about Air India’s way of treating their employees?
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The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
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This isn’t that big of news. This is common practice in the industry and there are many airlines that won’t allow flight attendants to work if they gain weight or have skin problems like acne.
Foreign labor regulations are different and allow employers to evaluate employees on different standards than the US and Europe. Flight attendants often have a very early retirement age and prohibitions from getting married among other things.