An Air India ‘Cabin Crew Health and Fitness Compliance Policy’ takes effect May 1 enforcing weight standards for flight attendants. Air India can do ad hoc BMI checks before or after flights and during training.
- They target 18 – 24.9 BMI
- Below 18 and 25 – 29.9 are considered conditionally acceptable if the crewmember clears a medical or functional assessment
- 30+ BMI is not permitted
Underweight or overweight crew can be de-rostered and have to clear the assessment before returning. If they fail, they lose pay until they’re cleared. Crew classified as obese (30 or higher BMI) immediately de-rostered without pay, have to ndergo medical testing within seven days, and face a 30-day correction window followed by escalating warning letters if they stay out of range. The tests are done at the Air India training academy, with three attempts allowed, and some medical testing is reportedly at the flight attendant’s expense.
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation introduced BMI-based cabin crew medical requirements in 2014. In 2022, Air India’s cabin crew union objected to BMI checks being done by “grooming associates” rather than medical professionals.
Air India says this is about healthy lifestyles, appropriate fitness, and making sure crew are physically capable of handling safety requirements. However there’s also an image component. The airline has been using new uniforms and a broader brand reset to signal that it’s no longer the old state-run Air India.
BMI is arguably a blunt and outdated proxy for actual fitness, but that largely means edge cases might feel mistreated – but those are likely to get signoff outside of the desired range, rather than being perfectly fit yet outside the 18-30 range.
Air India flight attendants have been put on blast before: shamed by a layover hotel for frequently stealing from the breakfast buffet, called out for upgrading their friends to business class, and forced to share hotel rooms. Other airlines have strict appearance standards as well,
- Malaysia Airlines actually fired a flight attendant for being 1.5 pounds overweight.
- Pakistan International Airlines required cabin crew to lose 5 pounds per month. They also adopted a rule that flight attendants had to start wearing underwear.
- Hainan Airlines re-rostered cabin crew who were 10% over the airline’s standard weight limit.
- SpiceJet only hired single women under 28.
Before the pandemic, United Airlines told flight attendants that their appearance was too sloppy.
In its early years, Southwest Airlines sold sex. That was the Love theme and not just their base at Dallas’s Love Field. In the 1970s flight attendants wore hot pants and gogo boots in a uniform designed by Juanice Muse, the wife of the airline’s first President.
In fact a Southwest Airlines legal case is the basis for a fundamental precept of employment discrimination law. In the “Love Airlines” case Southwest claimed the right to hire only attractive young women as flight attendants in order to appeal to what was then mostly male business travelers.
A federal court determined that the essence of the Southwest Airlines business was transportation not sexual allurement, so their employment policy was illegal sex discrimination. (On the other hand a business that was explicitly sexual in nature could discriminate in this way.)
All for it. United’s FA crews are now half gay guys and half unattractive women. It’s just not as pleasant as it could be.
For context, a 30 BMI is 175 lbs (79.4kg) if 5’4″ (1.625m) [approx. avg. female height in US] or 209 lbs (94.8kg) for 5’10” (1.778m) [avg. US male]. The major issue is that BMi is a rule of thumb for healthiness, in that it only considers height and weight. So, a sedentary 6’0″ guy who weighs 183lbs has a 24.8 BMI, high in healthy range, but if he starts exercising and loses 10 lbs of fat that is replaced with 13 lbs of muscle, he’s 186lbs with a BMI of 25.2, low in the overweight range. He’s obviously much better off in the latter case, despite a “worse” BMI..
The only real edge case on BMI is athletes and a few guys built like a tank. While BMI is far from precise 25 already has quite a bit of wiggle room. BMI definitely reads high for me, but I would still have to add 20 pounds to reach a BMI of 25.
A welcome and needed policy. Nw can SWA hurry up and implement this already, like yesterday? Also as a secondary policy change, weigh the passengers, and have a special back row of double wide seats (at double ticket price) for these to waddle into.
“A welcome and needed policy. Nw can SWA hurry up and implement this already, like yesterday? Also as a secondary policy change, weigh the passengers, and have a special back row of double wide seats (at double ticket price) for these to waddle into.”
You know if I were an Airline CEO, that is my solution. I would keep the last row on one side with one single wider seat that is unsold on each flight. It can be purposed for a variety of things:
1. Extra space needed when there is a medical emergency.
2. Large/obese passenger obviously can’t fit.
3. Non-Rev as needed.
You get the idea. But the airline has a “seat/space” for someone when something happens. It’s not ticketed or generally made available to the public to book.
But what do I know?
What’s wrong with gay guys, Dan? Don’t be a jerk.
Once again, there are certain oversize/overweight items that can only be shipped via ground.
Gary being so rotund wouldn’t be allowed on the flight!
So a BMI over 30 is verboten but line for checked baggage on Air India flights from JFK to BOM usually has hundreds of huge 75 & 100 pound luggage bags. Got it.
They used to do this in the “olden days”… back in the 1970s, “stewardesses” had to be weighed on a regular basis so they wouldn’t be “too fat” to give off the “sexy” image of flight attendant. That crap would never fly today(no pun intended). The tv commercial “I’m ______ fly me” or the book “coffee, tea or me?”. Pilots expected a little extra from stewardesses back then, too.
Not surprised a backward country like India would pull this nonsense.