‘Weight loss plan’ awaits 'fat' female flight attendants of this China airline

If female flight attendants are less than 5% overweight, their weight will be monitored on a monthly basis.

China's Hainan Airlines suspended flight attendants depending on their weight resulting in severe backlash. If the attendants are above a certain weight limit, they would be immediately grounded, the carrier said. The guidelines- based on a formula which calculated the limit considering the height of the flight attendants- state that if female flight attendants would exceed the "standard limit" by 10%, they would be immediately removed.

Applicants approach a panel of recruiters during a test session for cabin crew jobs at Hainan Airlines in Beijing, China. (Reuters)

The flight attendants who were suspended would be put on a company-supervised "weight-reduction plan". If female flight attendants are less than 5% overweight, their weight will be monitored on a monthly basis.

Quoting a civil aviation employee, Global Times reported that the police is unprecedented in the domestic aviation industry while a legal expert said that the move imposes additional labour obligations on employees without following proper legal procedures.

Hainan Airlines told CNN that they used a “weight reference standard” and said that the policy applied to all flight attendants regardless of gender. The measure “cannot be interpreted as a simple criterion to suspend a flight attendant as some media did”, they said, explaining that the standard is "based on the standard human body weight reference and matched with the healthy weight range measurement for the crew".

The rules are used to evaluate and manage the crew's "health, physical shape and posture" and "this is intended to advocate healthy living habits and maintain a good professional image and healthy physique by anchoring the reference target, rather than passively waiting for individual crew members’ physique to change significantly and then affect safety service work," it added.