Chinese Airline Imposes Strict Weight Limit On Female Flight Attendants

Photo: Luo Yunfei/China News Service/VCG (Getty Images)

When it comes to weight and commercial aviation, it should only be a concern to ensure that a plane is light enough to take off and have enough fuel to reach its destination. However, one Chinese airline has implemented new rules that brings flying back to an age when flight attendants were the focus of marketing material and still called stewardesses.

Delta’s Luggage Only Flight

Hainan Airlines has enacted a new company policy requiring female flight attendants must meet a weight limit to work. According to NBC News, the company’s weight limit calculation is based on height. If a flight attendant exceeds the weight limit by 10 percent, she will be immediately suspended and placed on an airline-supervised weight reduction program. It’s the kind of corporate ordinance that women would expect to see at Pan Am in the 1960s.

Liu Tao, a lawyer in China, told NBC News that the policy is likely illegal under Chinese labor law and qualifies as employment discrimination. Liu added, “This weight standard could only be legitimized if Hainan Airlines asked for every employee’s agreement in advance with signed notifications and consent forms.” The People’s Republic of China previously had a national law allowing air carriers to have attendant weight standards, but it was abolished in 2001.

Flight attendants are already tasked to perform an extremely challenging job. They have to serve a cabin full of passengers, who often aren’t calm or compliant. In the worst-case scenario, they must guide and protect passengers in life-threatening emergencies. As long as they are properly trained and dressed in uniform, their physical appearance shouldn’t matter.