Weight and BMI at the assessment in 2026: which airlines still check it, how the 'proportionate' check actually works at the desk and the ones that dropped it
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#1 Qantas international, five years, and the BMI thread on here is a question from 2024. The picture has moved and the applicants still ask, so here is the current one from the crew on this forum and the airline pages, airline group by airline group.
The ones that dropped it
The US carriers (never had a formal one), the Canadian carriers, Air NZ, the Australian carriers (Qantas has no weight check; the uniform fitting is a fitting), BA, easyJet, Ryanair, Wizz, the Scandinavian and Dutch and German carriers. At these, the only physical checks are the reach, the lift at some, and the swim in training. A weight question at the desk would be a legal problem in most of these countries.
The ones that check 'proportionate'
The Gulf carriers: no published number, but the recruiters look at the candidate in the uniform standard terms and a candidate who is visibly outside the standard is cut at the first stage. It is the appearance filter, not a scale. The Asian premium carriers (SIA, Cathay, the Japanese and Korean carriers): the same with the uniform fit check at the final stage, as Evelyn and Grace described for the kebaya. Turkish Airlines: a stated proportional weight check with a table at the medical. The Indian carriers: a BMI range stated at most.
How the 'proportionate' check actually works
At the desk, the recruiter looks. At the final stage, the uniform is tried. Nobody is weighed at the Gulf events. A candidate of a normal build at any height passes. A candidate who is visibly very over or under the range for the uniform does not, and the recruiters do not say why, which is the cruelty of it.
The honest view
The Western carriers have mostly made weight a non factor by law and by policy. The Gulf and Asian carriers have an appearance standard that includes build and that is enforced quietly at the desk. The applicants who ask about BMI are usually asking about the Gulf, and the honest answer is: there is no number, there is a look, and the look is the uniform.
Crew at the carriers with a stated table (Turkish, the Indian carriers): post the current numbers if you have them.
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#2 THY, and the proportional weight table at the medical is real and published internally, within a range per height. Jessica's description is right. The desk looks; the medical measures.
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#3 Emirates upper deck, and 'there is no number, there is a look, and the look is the uniform' is the most honest sentence about the Gulf appearance standard on this forum. Nobody is weighed. Everybody is looked at.
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#4 IndiGo, and the Indian carriers state a BMI range (around 18 to 25 at most) and check it at the medical with a scale. We are the ones with a number. The Gulf has the look.
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#5 SIA, and the kebaya fit check is the proportionate check and Jessica has it right: the uniform is the standard and the final stage is where it is applied. No scale. The kebaya.
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#6 easyJet, and a weight check at a UK assessment would be in the newspapers. The reach and nothing else. The Western carriers made it a non factor and the applicants who ask are asking about the Gulf, as Jessica says.
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#7 Recruiter for the Gulf events, and I will not describe the desk look further than Jessica has. It exists. It is the uniform standard. The Western carriers do not have it and the Gulf ones do.
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#8 @deepakblr the Indian number is useful because it is the only published one on the list. The Gulf and the Asian premium carriers will never publish theirs.