According to the Times of India, some air hostesses protested in 2013 that Air India should offer free gym memberships, as they said the firm had done some 15 years earlier, before testing their BMI and blood pressure.
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According to airline rules, female flight attendants must have a Body Mass Index (BMI) between 18 and 22.
They were classed as “temporarily unfit” for flight duties and asked to lose weight while being monitored by airline medical staff.
With nearly 125 of its crew overweight, Air India has decided to bar them from flying duties.
The airline considers a BMI of between 18 and 22 to be “normal” for women, between 22 and 27 is “overweight” and “obese” for anything over 27. While the flight attendants’ union questioned the authority of the DGCA over them, that hasn’t stopped Air India from taking action on the guidelines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines an individual’s BMI as weight divided by height squared. The women appealed, only for the airline to fire them in 2009 as the country’s Supreme Court was still considering the case.
Officials with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation says these guidelines were established because, due to their physique, fat flight attendants cannot react quite as effectively and swiftly as they should in emergency situations.
This is not the first time Air India has removed staff from the air for being overweight. The BBC reports that 125 Air India employees will be grounded for failing to maintain the company’s weight standards. “These cabin crews, like pilots, should undergo yearly tests by physicians to consider if they are fit or not, not merely on BMI alone”.
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Last year, 600 staff members were given a six-month deadline to reach a “normal” weight or face demotion. “We will also check the record of each aircraft to find out if some planes are being operated by deferring repairs that need to be carried out”, said an official. If their BMI cross the upper limit, then they fall under the category of obese.
