Indian Carrier Prefers Women to Cut on Cost

Thursday, 11th July 2013 at 08:14am

There are various reasons why women are preferred in some jobs and one of them is that simply because they are more efficient in those areas. Take, for instance, the commercial aviation industry.

More than half of flight crew in most airlines around the world employ women for their flight crew. It might not be easy for most of us to understand why majority of flight attendants are women. But no one would bother to ask. After all, it's the least of our concerns as passengers.

It's undeniable that female flight attendants possess a trait that keeps airline passengers feel comfortable while in flight. It might not be appropriate to say that they are just eye candies to most passengers, especially the macho species on board, but they really make good visual impact in each flight especially with their wafer-thin figure and their heart-warming toothed smile that ooze with sex appeal.

But one Indian carrier has another reason for hiring female flight attendants. Aside from the obvious reasons cited above, women flight attendants help them save on fuel cost.

What? The instant you hear this reason, you will treat it as just another kind of a light joke. It might sound funny but certainly you won't let out a loud guffaw.

Yes, you heard it right. GoAir, India's largest budget carrier, has a novel idea of saving on fuel cost, hiring women only for their flight crew.

GoAir recently announced that their recruitment team has started to implement a policy that prefers female applicants to work as flight attendants. Their reason is that their weight is 15-20 kilos lighter than male attendants, on average.

According to the carrier, each kilo in excess costs about Rs3 ($0.05) each hour while in flight. The new policy would enable them to save up to $500,000 every year.

Apart from the women-only policy for its flight crew, the airline also looks for other ways to reduce flight load. Among these are the reduction in size of its in-flight magazine as well as the content of its water tanks on board. According to its CEO, Giorgio De Roni, its water tank is no longer filled to capacity as only 40%, at most, is actually used in each flight.

The new policy, however, will not endanger the present male flight attendants as it will only apply to future hirings. The airline estimates that they will need at least 2,000 people for their flight crew in the next seven years.

Fuel costs remain to be the biggest issue among Indian carriers as they comprise almost one third of their operating costs.

The Samoa Air made headlines last year when it began charging its passengers according to their weight, a first in the commercial aviation industry.

By: Pete Lee.