Chinese Airline Grounds Overweight Flight Attendant

Qingdao Airlines allegedly bars woman crew member from flying because she is too heavy for her height but the company denies the claim.


A domestic airline in China has barred a flight attendant from flying because she exceeded requirements for cabin crew, a news website quoted a company employee as saying.

A crew member from Qingdao Airlines said the airline stopped flight attendants from flying or sacked them if they did not meet height-to-weight ratio requirements, reported Shanghai-based news website Thepaper.cn.

The crew member, who was not named, said one flight attendant had been grounded, but refused to give further details.

A representative from the company admitted it had stringent weight requirements, but denied any employee had been barred from flying or sacked over the issue.

China’s civil aviation authority guidelines state that women flight attendants who are between 160cm and 172cm tall should weigh between 45kg and 73 kg.

To apply to be a flight attendant with Qingdao Airlines, women must be younger than 30, between 165cm and 172cm tall and weigh between 50kg and 68kg, according to recruitment requirements listed on its website.

“We are concerned that exceeding weight standards will compromise the ability of cabin crew members to respond in emergency situations, and we hope the crew can maintain good body shape,” the airline representative told Thepaper.cn.

According to an employee of the civil aviation authority, taking disciplinary action against staff members over their weight is a violation of human rights.

Most international airlines have done away with weight requirements for cabin crew members and only require they pass physical fitness examinations.

Airlines in India have previously come under fire for disciplining cabin crew members who are “too fat to fly”. According to India’s civil aviation authority, crew members who are found overweight based on their calculated body mass index will have three months to bring their weight down to “acceptable levels”. If they fail, they are declared “unfit” for cabin crew duties.

Source:  http://www.scmp.com