New Delhi, May 2: Air India is caught in a fat or fit dilemma: civil aviation regulators want it to ground overweight cabin crew but the airline isn't quite game.
Set to add several new flights to its international roster, the government carrier is reluctant to shed some 130 experienced flight attendants found exceeding the body weight specifications laid down by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
In a letter to the DGCA last October, Air India had made it clear that its specifications were "unrealistic to implement" but it has yet to get a reply.
Airline officials said the regulator's silence had made it difficult for Air India to take a call on the fates of the attendants, mostly women, who had failed to get "in shape".
"We are in a fix as the DGCA does not seem to be relenting and we are about to launch many new international flights for which we need experienced flight attendants," a senior Air India official told this newspaper. "At the moment, we haven't decided what to do with these 130 cabin crew members."
In a May 2014 circular, the DGCA had directed all domestic airlines to classify flight attendants as "normal", "overweight" or "obese" according to body mass index (BMI) and ensure that only the "fitter" members were assigned aircraft duty.
BMI is a measure of body fat, calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by the square of his/her height in metres.
According to the circular, a female attendant would be considered "normal" if she had a BMI between 18 and 22, "overweight" if it was between 22 and 27 and "obese" if it was higher than 27.
For men, a BMI between 18 and 25 would be "normal", between 25 and 29.9 "overweight" and above 30 "obese".
The DGCA had given airlines an 18-month deadline to comply with these norms, arguing that fitness levels of cabin crew were directly linked to their speed and agility, and thereby to passenger safety during emergencies.
Air India had then asked some 600 flight attendants to shape up but about 130 had failed to get their BMI down to prescribed levels. The carrier has a total cabin crew strength of about 3,500.
"We realised later that the BMI standards laid down by the DGCA were very strict and unrealistic, particularly in the Indian context where women tend to put on weight during middle age," an official in the airline's human resources department said.
"We subsequently sent a letter to the DGCA in October last year asking for relaxation in norms for those 130 flight attendants since they are senior staffers and will be able to handle international flights better than the younger lot."
Air India launched a non-stop flight between Delhi and San Francisco last December. It is set to begin a direct flight between Delhi and Washington soon.
It also launched a Delhi-Vienna flight in April and is looking at taking its services to several African and Scandinavian countries. The airline currently flies to 36 destinations in the US, Europe, Australia, the Far East, South-East Asia and the Gulf, in addition to 48 domestic ones.
Sources in the DGCA said the decision on BMI specifications for cabin crew was taken after a long deliberation on "technical and efficiency grounds".
"A decision on Air India's request is pending with us, but we will not go back on the BMI norms - I am sure the airline can sail through the situation by giving proper training to flight attendants who are fitter," said a DGCA official dealing with cabin aviation requirements in airlines.
Nissa Quadri of the All India Cabin Crew Association, however, termed the DGCA regulation "ridiculous".
"Any industry insider would vouch for Air India flight attendants being the best when it comes to their primary job, mainly because of their long experience. So, this guideline by the DGCA is ridiculous and unacceptable," she said.
"I am happy that Air India is resisting this move to safeguard the interests of those air hostesses who have dedicated years to the service of the airline and its fliers."