Air India cracks the whip on obesity - grounds 57 cabin crew members

Air India has cracked the whip on obesity and has grounded 57 cabin crew members - most of them are air hostesses. Unless they can get back in shape quickly, they will be assigned ground jobs permanently and a ground job means loss of flying allowance which varies between Rs 35,000 and Rs 50,000 a month.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 20 January 2017.

As indicated by the airline, these crew members had a higher-than-permitted body mass index (BMI, the ratio of weight and height of an individual) and have been asked to lose weight. They hve been given deadlines and, since they could not meet the deadlines, they were assigned ground jobs.
Overweight cabin crew are declared temporarily unfit for six months. If they do not meet the BMI requirements in 18 months, they are termed permanently unfit.
More than two years ago, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had introduced strict requirements for cabin crew's weight, vision and hearing. Under the guidelines, the ideal BMI for a male cabin crew is 18-25 while it is 18-22 for female crew.


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Air India flies nonstop Delhi to San Francisco over the Pacific Ocean to set a world record

Air India has set a world record by flying Delhi to San Francisco nonstop over the Pacific Ocean instead of the Atlantic.
The Pacific route is almost 1,400km longer than the Atlantic one, and the flight covered 15,300 kilometres in 14.5 hours. However, in spite of this being a longer route, the flight took almost two hours less because of tailwinds that blow in the same direction as an aircraft, thereby allowing it to go faster.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 23 October 2016.

On the return journey it will fly back over the Atlantic to get advantage of tailwinds on both the outbound and inbound flights.
Air India uses the Boeing-777-200 which, on an average, burns 9,600 litres of fuel for each hour of flying. Therefore, a shorter flying time on the Delhi-SFO route — from an hour in summer to three hours (in winter) — would mean tremendous fuel savings for the airline.


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Air India has plans to start a Kolkata-London direct flight from 2017

Air India has plans to restart the Kolkata-London direct flight with a Dreamliner flight by mid-2017. Once it starts, it would be six years after Lufthansa snapped the city's last Europe link. It may be recalled that Air India had withdrawn its Calcutta-London flight in October 2008. Subsequently, next year, British Airways pulled out from the city followed by German airline Lufthansa - it was Calcutta's last direct connection to Europe and it withdrew its Frankfurt flight in 2010.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 5 August 2016.

For any airline to operate on a new route, it has to plan at least a year in advance. It has to take into consideration various factors like a market survey, apart from requests for landing and parking slots at both destinations. Foreign airlines had left Calcutta because of inadequate load. Calcutta did not provide enough business for operations to remain viable and, usually, profitability is defined by demand for high-yield seats.
Anyway, for any airline to operate on a new route, it has to plan a year in advance, starting with a market survey and requests for landing and parking slots at both destinations.The tentative plan appears to be to start a Dhaka-Calcutta-London flight. It can hopefully be launched by the middle of next year with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The flight would possibly operate non-stop between Calcutta and Heathrow, where the national airline operates from Terminal 4. It would probably be restricted to a maximum of one flight in this sector.


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Lack of passengers force Air India to close its Calcutta-Andal-Delhi route

Within one year, Air India has taken a decision to withdraw its flights from Andal in Burdwan district because of low passenger count. The national carrier had started its Calcutta-Andal-Calcutta service with a 44-seater ATR aircraft in May 2015 and, later, in December, it extended the route to Delhi and simultaneously introduced a bigger aircraft - an Airbus 319.
But - the poor passenger load has compelled it to close down its operations.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 15 June 2016.

As informed by a spokesperson of Air India, the last Calcutta-Andal-Delhi flight would take off on June 17 and those who have bookings after that will get full refund.
The poor load factor was the reason for this move. There would be an average of 80-90 per day. An Airbus 319 aircraft can carry 122 or 144 passengers and, against that, over the past month, the average daily passenger count has been just three for Andal and 80-90 for Delhi. There are 40-odd passengers from Calcutta, of whom three get down at Andal. Around another 50 would board the aircraft at the Burdwan airport for the onward journey to Delhi.
For a flight on the Calcutta-Andal-Delhi route to be viable, the average daily passenger load should be at least 100.


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Air India facing a weighty problem in Chennai - 295 crew members are overweight

Air India in Chennai base is stuck with a weighty problem because, over the last 5 years, 295 of its crew members are overweight and have been asked to lose weight. The ability to flash a prefect smile is not the only criterion to be a cabin crew member, weight also in important.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 7 March 2016.

This information has emerged following an RTI application filed by OnlineRTI.com - out of the 295, four had to be removed permanently from flying duty after they failed to maintain the required Body Mass Index (BMI) or weight standards prescribed by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
BMI or Body Mass Index indicates `weight in proportion to height' and reveals whether a person is underweight, overweight and obese, or weighs appropriately for his or her height. As per guidelines of DGCA, the BMI of 18-25 is normal for a male cabin crew member while for a female it should be 18-22.
Air India declare cabin crew as `temporary unfit' when they fail to reduce weight according to DGCA guidelines and, if the weight issues persist for more than 18 months, the crew would merit `permanent unfitness'. In that case, such crew members are assigned ground jobs that pays less than flying duty.
The reasons for grounding are because they may find it difficult to perform emergency duty if they are overweight. The problem is more with women since they are unable to control BMI after pregnancy and some of them volunteer for ground duties.


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