Qatar Airways flight attendant, photo by Yahoo Finance Canada
via Flickr
However bad flight attendants may get it from a fuselage-full of cramped and compressed passengers (at least in economy), it may pale in comparison to what comes from above, especially for female attendants.
Qatar Airways is the latest airline in the sights of International Transport Workers’ Federation, which represents more than 4.5 million transport workers from 150 countries. The group claims flight attendants require company permission to get married or pregnant, without which, can get them fired.
In an interview with Richard Quest on CNN, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker called (with great venom) the report “a load of bulls***” and accused attackers as planting rumors because they are merely upset of the lack of unions in Qatar Airways.
Meanwhile,Qatar Airways allegedly also only hires single female flight attendants they must remain single for five years after starting work. Considering 90 percent of the staff are from other countries, losing their job can mean deportation.
No doubt the bad press delights U.S. airlines like Delta, who are in an ongoing spat with Gulf carriers over the government subsidies Qatar and others receive, claiming it’s a violation of trade policy. Indeed, on the same show, Delta CEO Richard Anderson refuses to even acknowledge them as airlines, “They are not airlines, they are governments,” before going on to make a classless link between the gulf carriers and 9/11 terrorism.