चीनी एयरलाइन में शादीशुदा एयर होस्टेस अब बनीं ‘आंटी’, मचा बवाल

A Chinese airline has created controversy by announcing the recruitment of married women and mothers as air hostesses. Actually, the company has proposed to call these employees ‘Air Aunty’, due to which people have become very angry. People say that the same designation or title should be used for all air hostesses, whether married or not. People are saying that the use of the term ‘air aunty’ for an air hostess who is married and has children is derogatory.

Located in Shanghai on October 22 China India’s first budget airline ‘Spring Airlines’ has invited applications for Air Aunty posts. The company said that it is looking for women between 25 to 40 years of age, who are married or have children.

According to the company’s announcement, women applying must have at least a bachelor’s degree, their height must be between 162 to 174 centimeters and they must have customer service experience.

Chinese airline is planning to recruit so many women

According to Hong Kong-based newspaper ‘South China Morning Post’, these posts are for Shanghai and the north-western city of Lanzhou and the company is planning to recruit 30 to 60 women. Typically, Chinese airlines hire flight attendants between the ages of 18 and 25.

A recruitment manager told China News Service that so-called ‘air aunties’ can better care for children and elderly passengers because of their life experience and empathy.

Spring Airlines said the move is part of its initiative to increase employment opportunities for women and expand its workforce. The legal retirement age for women in China is usually 50 years.

People angry with the word Air Aunty

The job notification of Spring Airlines went viral on social media in no time and was viewed more than 70 million times. People are expressing disagreement over the term ‘Air Aunty’. A social media user wrote, ‘The title of Air Aunty is derogatory for women. What do you want to convey by saying Air Aunty? That those women are old and married.

Another user said, ‘The word aunty reflects domestic sentiments, like traditional housewives who take care of their husbands and children.’

As the controversy escalated, the airline clarified that it did not intend to insult anyone. A representative of the company said, ‘We just wanted to differentiate between married and unmarried candidates. Their work, salary and career will be the same as any other flight attendant.

The airline also said that the term ‘air aunty’ originated in the 1990s, when China’s civil aviation sector began recruiting laid-off female textile workers as flight attendants and the name has been in use ever since.

The company has been providing jobs for married women in the past as well.

This is not the first time that Spring Airlines has opened job doors for married women and mothers. According to Chinese media outlet Chao News, the airline is currently employing 88 ‘air aunties’, of whom 74 percent are women now handling management roles.

‘We are actually ahead of the new graduates,’ said a married flight attendant. We have worked first, raised children and cared for the elderly. We naturally play the role of elder sister in the team.

Spring Airlines also offers waiver of training fees for older applicants. While some users are criticizing the company regarding the Air Aunty title, some people are appreciating this initiative of the company.

Users are writing that this is a positive change for China’s airline industry where now the focus of companies is shifting from looks and youth to skills and professional qualifications.

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