Air travel has changed a lot over the years, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the style of uniform worn by flight attendants.
If the recent change to its uniform policy is any indication, things may be changing.
A woman is a flight attendant.
Even though flight attendants work long hours with strenuous physical activity, the uniforms they wear are not practical. There are blazers, pencil skirts, and high heels. It’s not comfortable if you’re working on a long-haul flight.
The airline is making a change.
Unless you’re familiar with Eastern European budget airlines, it’s likely not a carrier you’ve heard of. SkyUp Airlines, based out of Ukraine, has unveiled a sweeping change that could be the start of a larger trend.
Here’s the new uniform.
The view of the top half of the uniform is striking, but only because it features the airline’s signature bright shade of orange. It looks like a typical flight attendant blazer on most airlines.
Here’s the full reveal.
The pants are the most obvious change. Pants are the most practical lower body garment that can be worn in public.
The uniform swaps out pencil skirts for pants. It replaced heels with something more comfortable. Sneakers.
It’s a stylish, practical look.
The pants are more comfortable than the skirts. The bright white Nike Air Max 720 sneakers are going to be easier on flight attendants’ feet than high heels.
The flight attendants are excited.
“Twelve hours on your feet, flying from Kyiv to Zanzibar and back,” is how flight attendant Daria Solomennaya described a typical shift. “If you wear high heels, you are hardly able to walk afterward.”
It’s time for uniforms to be changed.
Female flight attendants have been wearing sexualized uniforms for decades, but it’s not practical.
“A flight attendant’s work is not that romantic. It’s hard,” SkyUp’s head of marketing Marianna Grygorash told the BBC. “We realized that our female flight attendants didn’t want to be seen as ‘sexualized and playful’.”
Will other carriers follow suit? Time will tell.
It seems inevitable. Flight attendants should be allowed to go to work in sweatpants and hoodies because of the long hours they work.
We want to know what you think of SkyUp’s new uniforms.
