Flight attendants are often known for having a glamorous job that allows them to fly around the world to exotic locations as part of their job. Nowadays almost anyone can step into the role as a flight attendant, but this wasn’t always the case. In fact, there used to be more stringent when it came to job applications.
While the exact same specifications don’t exist now, many airlines do still set out height and weight guidelines for “health and safety purposes.”
According to UCAS, entry requirements for air cabin crew vary between airlines. The website states: “Airlines usually require air cabin crew to be between five feet two inches and six feet two inches tall, with weight restrictions varying.”
Furthermore, although cabin crew must be ver 18, their ages range far beyond 27 these days.
According to cabin crew blog Cabin Crew Wings, British Airways to not enforce a specific weight for crew, but state potential crew must “be between 5’2” (1.575m) and 6’1” (1.85m) tall, with weight in proportion to your height.”
Patricia Ireland began flying for airline Pan Am in her younger years and says at the time cabin crew were forced to wear girdles in order to sculpt their body into the ideal shape for the uniform.
“I thought there was no better prescription for varicose veins than to go in a pressurised cabin with the equivalent of rubber bands around your thighs,” she said of the tight underwear the women had to squeeze into.
Ireland now realises at the time she didn’t think twice about the odd policy.
“My concept of what women could do in the workplace was really very limited. . . . I look back now with awe at the blinders I had on, but it seemed to me at the time just the price of admission to the workplace in a job that was very exciting,” she admits.
