This Airline Is Swapping High Heels, Pencil Skirts For Sneakers And Trousers

The airline said it is also ditching suits and skirts for "trouser suits with soft tailoring aesthetics and trench coats."

A budget airline in Ukraine is ditching its old uniform of high heels and pencil skirts for women employees for a more comfortable alternative. SkyUp Airlines, founded in 2016, is one of the youngest low-cost airlines in Ukraine, but already one of its biggest. The airline said it is giving crew members the option of wearing sneakers and trousers on board after surveying the staff and discovering that female employees were "fed up" with high heels, pencil skirts and tight blouses.

"Twelve hours on your feet, flying from Kyiv to Zanzibar and back. If you wear high heels, you are hardly able to walk afterwards," flight attendant Daria Solomennaya, 27, told the BBC. "That includes four hours of security checks and cleaning."

Besides contributing to health issues -- "Many of my colleagues are permanent clients of podologists; their toes and toe-nails are constantly damaged by high heels," flight attendant Daria Solomennaya said -- there are other problems with tight skirts and heels. 

Flight attendants might have to rush to open an exit door over a wing if a plane makes an emergency landing on water. To do so, they would have to clamber over people - "Imagine how I could do that in a pencil skirt," Ms Solomennaya said.