Wanted: youth, looks and readiness to fly

[Spector]

Ching-Ching Ni
Los Angeles Times

BEIJING–Fly on a Chinese airline and you will be pampered by flight attendants who look eerily alike. They are young, beautiful and practically the same height.

This is not a coffee-tea-or-me stereotype, but the result of a rigorous selection process that is more beauty pageant than equal-opportunity job interview.

If you're older than 24, don't bother applying. If you aren't taller than the average Chinese woman, go home. And if your legs are similar to tree trunks, don't call.

Sound like a throwback to the dark ages of workplace discrimination?

Here, in the world's fastest-growing aviation market, entry barriers for flight attendants are not only tolerated – they're flaunted as symbols of excellence.

"A lot of Chinese passengers judge the quality of airlines based on the quality of their flight attendants, meaning are they pretty or not pretty," said Luo Man, a media director at China Southern, the country's largest carrier.

Good looks are such a commodity these days that China Southern has put its annual recruitment drive on reality TV. While men are not excluded from the jobs, only women are featured in the on-television selection process. The show, funded in part by the airline, follows a six-month audition – complete with swimsuit competition and a race involving luggage, makeup brushes and drink trays – through several major Chinese cities. Thousands line up for the chance to compete for 180 openings.

China Southern's website for the show, which provides news and information on the auditions, has had more than 1 million hits.

"This is every little girl's dream," said Lu Ju, 20, who has flown three times in her life. "I want to be beautiful like the flight attendants. They can see the world and go places most people can't."

During a recent taping of the program in a posh resort on the outskirts of the Chinese capital, Lu and other contestants lined up with military precision. All wore tight shorts and snug pastel T-shirts.

In teams of two, they raced against each other, one team member skipping rope and the other lugging a heavy suitcase. Then, off-camera, they changed from shorts to the button-down blouse, pencil skirt and black heels of a flight attendant. Back before the cameras as the clock ticked, they grabbed trays of drinks to present to the judges.

Time counts, but so does poise.

"I think I was too nervous," Lu said afterward. "My hair was a little messy and I didn't carry myself with enough confidence."

Wang Jing, 22, who has never flown before, is an only child who travelled by train to the competition, her mother with her.

"I think this kind of contest is fair," said Li Guoping, 47, Wang's mother. "A lot of other Chinese airlines have flight attendants who are very attractive. People always talk about which airline has the best-looking flight attendants."

Singapore Airlines, for example, has built its reputation on the beauty and hospitality of the sarong-wearing staff known in its global ad campaigns as the "Singapore Girls.''

Chinese airlines are so youth-oriented that many in the cabin crew stop flying in their 30s. China Southern says it has the oldest staff, with retirement age capped at 45.

"My parents worry this is an unstable job without a long future," said Wang Wenjing, 21, a college junior at the contest. "I don't want to be just another office secretary."

Veda Shook is not amused by the focus on looks and youth.

"I find it very offensive," said Shook, international vice president for the Association of Flight Attendants, the world's largest labour union for cabin crew members, representing more than 55,000 employees at 20 U.S. airlines.

"When a carrier views their selection process as a beauty pageant, it's really a setback to our profession on a global scale."

Not that Americans haven't been there. It wasn't until 1971 that it became illegal for U.S. airlines to refuse to hire men as flight attendants or ban married women.

Chinese airline officials say their industry is young and that it will take time for the public to move beyond the superficial.

[pablo]

Here, Here!

Back to the days, "when men were men...and sheep were nervous"! 5555

[JudgeHolden]

It seems to be a bit of the same in LOS as well, at least the cheaper domestic flights. When I've flown with One-Two-Go or Nok, they always have beautiful attedants...

I'm still haunted by the two long-haul BA flights I've had though...

[nelsonone]

tell Vida Shook to take a flying fook!.....I'm flying China Air.....stuff the safety issues....I want good lookin girlies and no poofs!!!!........

[retepg]

Like the good old days.... Last time I flew Qantas, I swear one of the stewardesses could have been my granny....

[marc26]

i have seen this in many instances
even in jobs advertised for males requesting a picture with the resume

[Nicke]

Providing photo when applying for a job here is more or less standard, what i have seen.

[ATMwalking]

I think it is fantastic.

On my last flight, half of it I was served by an overweight man the same age as my father. The second half, a few lovely Singapore Girls were serving us. Guess which one had me and my GF feeling much more comfortable. Of course I had more that just comfort neurons firing on the Sing air flight :-)

Nok Air had some sort of competition when they started up. In general I'd say the Thai airlines are hiring less good looking girls than other asian airlines. They need to step up their game.

Bars tend to hire healthy young good looking staff. What is wrong with airlines doing the same?

[Capt. Fantastic]

Have noticed when on "non-Western" airlines the stewardesses-- oops!-- flight attendants are as described in the article. Sri Lankan Air and Emerates Air come to mind, along with all the small Asian carriers.

When I was a refueller at McCarran (LAS) the legacy US carriers were in the midst of the post-9/11 contraction. We "ramp rats" were up close and personal with the, um, mature flight attendants-- all the young cute ones had been furloughed. Nice ladies, they knew their jobs, but come on!

There is something not quite right about a career flight attendant. A Las Vegas casino analogy: When the Rio hotel opened it instantly sparked panic among the cocktail waitress population and rejoicing among the males. Reason? The "Rio outfit" which was built around a thong. We loved it! Other casinos used that as leverage, either threatening or actually making the change to "Rio outfits." Cocktails either hit the gym or moved on.

But when the Rio reached (I think) ten years in operation it had a whole crew of, well, "experienced" cocktails. It was, after all, an excellent place to work. Something had to be done! A complete change to a combination cocktail/entertainer. They would have to sing and dance as part of their duties. Same for dealers-- the dealertainers.

So the "career" girls were moved out and a new wave of firm flesh brought in. All without lawsuits AFAIK.

Maybe there is a lesson here for the PC-constrained Western carriers.