Ageism in Malaysia's airline industry

At Malaysia Airline System (MAS), female flight attendants must retire from flying by the age of 45 if they are supervisors, and by the age of 40 if they hold non-supervisory posts. On the other hand, male cabin crew retire at age 55, regardless of their positions.

Compared to most airline companies, MAS's policy is ageist. In Japan, the female cabin crew of Japan Airlines retire at age 60. Next, Air stewardesses as Air India and Indonesia's Garuda International Airlines can work until they are 55. As seen from these examples, MAS's policy is both ageist and sexist.

In defence of their policy, a top MAS official said that passengers want to be served by "young, pretty and demure stewardesses, especially Asian ladies." Another excuse was that MAS "need front-liners who are mentally and physically alert, young, pretty and quick to respond to emergencies as safety and security of passengers is our priority."

Is he trying to imply that female flight attendants become less alert once they reach 40 and that they are less competent than their older male counterparts?

To make things worse, he also suggested that women over 40 have domestic problems that interfered with their jobs, especially if they have children. He supported his claim by saying that MAS has statistics to show high-absenteeism among married stewardesses.
Hence, it is not surprising that MAS's policy had sparked off a debate.

The irony of the situation is that MAS employment policies are contrary to the Constitution and the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which Malaysia ratified in 1995.

In response to this, the Women's Aid Organisation (WAO) created the Joint Initiative Group against Gender Bias by the Malaysia Airline System. One of the immediate revisions required is, to increase the retirement age of the female cabin crew from age 40 to age 55- the same retirement age as males holding the same job position.

Despite this and efforts by several other NGOs to urge MAS and the Malaysian government to review the policy, nothing has changed. Ageism and Sexism is still present in Malaysia's airline industry.

Given that more than half of the crew is female, if nothing was done to solve this issue, who knows what will happen to this industry in the future.