Hunan Airlines is the first Chinese airline to let its flight attendants wear flat-heeled shoes across their entire shift, a policy shift that started 1 August.
The company explained via a WeChat post that while elegant-looking high-heels might “enhance the professional image of flight attendants”, they failed to meet the “professional needs” of female cabin crew in practice. High-heels are notoriously difficult to balance in, for instance – a problem made worse during turbulent flights or on slick surfaces.
“Wearing high-heels for a long time may cause physical discomfort, especially when standing or walking for a long time,” Hunan Airlines noted in its statement. “Wearing flat shoes … shows responsibility for personal safety and passenger safety.”
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According to a company representative speaking with Chinese media, feedback from stewardesses had been “very positive”. They said that while female cabin crew had already been allowed to wear flats while airborne, they were required to don heels at all other times when working – including in airports, while walking up and down stairs, on jet bridges and when boarding planes.
Hunan Airline stewardess Li Yan said she had been wearing high-heels to work since 2012, and found them both tiring and inconvenient. Li said the shoes were particularly treacherous during wet or snowy weather, when they increased her risk of slipping over.
Hunan Airlines is not the first in its industry to have ditched high-heels. Australia’s flag carrier Qantas has already made the move, as has Finland’s Finnair and the Dutch flag carrier KLM – which now offers a KLM-branded sneaker to cabin crew.
