Some airlines around the world are promoting their services by treating flight attendants as sexual decorations, using the same attitudes that prevailed some 50 years ago, according to Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
The article, headlined “Flight of fancy: the truth about female cabin crew” comes as a female business executive in the UK faces court on charges of allegedly groping “the groin and testicular area” of a male flight steward and demanding sex while drunk on an aircraft. That case is notable mainly because it reverses the usual gender profile of such harassment.
The Guardian article points out that Thai airline Nok Air advertised earlier this year for “beautiful girls with nice personalities” to fill its cabin crew positions. Any “girls” over 25 were deemed too old.
A report in The Times of India last month accused Air India of following a similar recruitment policy. And new airline Thai Smile (operated by Thai Airways and scheduled for launch next year) is recruiting a 100-strong cabin crew of women under 24.
The paper mentioned the case of a flight attendant who had applied to Garuda Indonesia recently. She later told a local newspaper that she and her fellow candidates had been subjected to a “health examination” by a male doctor that involved having their breasts “fondled”. A Garuda official is said to have explained that “hand examination on breast” was essential to detect undeclared breast implants, which “can have health issues when air pressure falls during flights”.
Other cases mentioned by the paper: the Air New Zealand TV advertising campaign of 2009 in which cabin crew wore nothing but body paint; a Southwest Airlines plane bearing murals of bikini-clad supermodel Bar Rafaeli; Virgin Atlantic’s multi-million-dollar ad campaigns featuring the airline’s “red hotties” and Ryanair’s annual “Girls of Ryanair” calendar.
Written by : Peter Needham
(Source: eglobaltravelmedia.com.au)
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