Air India mandates pre-flight check on cabin crew’s grooming, weight; irks aviation bodies

As per an official order, Air India has decided to check grooming and body mass index (BMI) of cabin crew members just before they board their respective flights.

On January 24, the carrier’s two unions – Air India Employees’ Union (AIEU) and All India Cabin Crew Association (AICCA) wrote a letter to Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Vikram Dev Dutt opposing the order on the grounds that it is dehumanising and in violation of rules prescribed by aviation regulator DGCA.

“BMI is a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in metres. A high BMI can indicate high body fatness,” stated the website of US’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The order dated January 20, 2022, has come days before Air India’s hand over to the Tata group, which acquired the carrier in a competitive bidding process last year.

Cabin crew, who are well dressed and well groomed according to uniform standards and regulations, present a positive and professional image of the airline, the order stated. “It is therefore emphasized that, all cabin crew adhere to uniform regulations communicated by the circular dated November 18, 2019,” the order noted.

The January 20 order was sent by Vasudha Chandana, Executive Director – In-flight Services, Air India, to all cabin crew members in the carrier. “Grooming associates have been assigned the task of recording observations on the BMI management/grooming/uniform turnout of cabin crew when they report for a flight or standby duty at CCMCO (Cabin Crew Movement Control Office),” she noted.

These observations must be compiled and sent to her office, she stated. Each cabin crew shall be observed or assessed once on quarterly basis, she noted. However, it will be the responsibility of the cabin supervisor of the flight to ensure that her or his set of crew are well turned out and follow complete uniform regulations, she mentioned.

All cabin supervisors must lead by example and ensure compliance by cabin crew at all times, she stated. Any non-compliance by a crew member must be noted in the report of the cabin supervisor, she noted. In a letter to the CMD, the aforementioned two unions said that as per DGCA’s rules, the BMI checks can be done only by medical practitioners.
The unions said that such BMI checks at airports by non-medical grooming associates violates not only DGCA rules but also “settled service conditions and court orders.”

“We must stipulate that we are not objecting to BMI checks, which crew have undergone for more than 15 years now, however, the same must be conducted by medical doctors, in the privacy of the Air India clinic, as has been the case until now,” the unions noted. This process of weighing scale checks at airports “dehumanizes and denigrates” Air India’s cabin crew, apart from violating working conditions, they stated.