A former Emirates cabin crew member has revealed that the airline subjected her to regular weight checks and placed her on a weight management programme after she was deemed 'too heavy' at 10 stone. Duygu Karaman, who worked for the Dubai-based carrier for a decade, told the Mirror that she quit in 2019 due to the 'strict' and 'upsetting' monitoring.
Karaman claimed that after a colleague reported her as 'too heavy', she was asked to lose weight and monitored for a year to ensure she kept it off. 'They didn’t tell me who reported me but they weighed me and said they track everything according to BMI,' she said. 'Because I was 2kg over I was put in a weight management programme.' She added that she would be pulled aside for random weigh-ins before flights.
The former crew member said the experience damaged her self-confidence. 'It’s definitely not okay,' she said. 'I was really upset for so long and then I lost my self-confidence.' She claimed that other colleagues were also subjected to the practice, with one resorting to a surgical tummy tuck against doctors' advice.
Aviation blogs have previously reported on a secret 'Appearance Management Programme' at Emirates, though the airline does not publicly acknowledge such a policy. Its website states that cabin crew should be 'physically fit for this demanding role with a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI)', and requires women to wear heels and 'a full face of make-up'.
An Emirates spokesperson said: 'As a global airline, we treat the wellbeing of our employees with the highest priority, and we believe being fit and healthy, both physically and mentally, is an important aspect in them carrying out their duties safely and effectively.' The spokesperson added that the airline does not comment on specific confidential cases of employees.
