In what is being largely seen as a discriminatory move, government-owned Air India has announced set new fitness rules for its crew members.

According to its new fitness rules, the national airline makes a distinction between its Permanently Medically Unfit (PMU) and Temporary Medically Unfit (TMU) crew.

As per the guidelines, accessed by India Today TV, if an Air India crew member remains unfit to fly for 18 months, he/she will be deemed to the PMU category.

The category also includes crew members having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of above 30 for more than a year. BMI is a measure based on the height and weight of a person. It is used as a way to calculate the health risks of carrying any excess fat. Such crew members will not be reverted back to flying duties under any circumstances.

The new fitness guidelines, signed by the Medical Executive Director of Air India, were released on May 24.

The Temporary Medically Unfit category allows a maximum one week for acute conditions and three weeks for long chronic illness at a time.

In 2014, Air India had grounded around 100 crew members after it came up with a fresh set of body mass index (BMI) rules for the staff.

When India Today contacted Air India, the airline spokesperson refused to comment on the new development.

"The goal post keeps changing as per the whims and fancies of the powers that be. When it suits the management they recall overweight crew members otherwise they ground them. Most doctors who frame the rules are not even familiar with the aviation issues," a crew member said on condition of anonymity.

Air India has been reeling under cabin crew shortage for over a year now. Such was the crisis in March that the management had to request all 'inactive' cabin crew members to report for duty so that the number of flight cancellations could be brought down. An inactive crew member is one who has been found unfit to fly due to technical or physical reasons. At that point, Air India management overlooked such issues.

Adding to the employees' disappointment, the new Air India rules state that the crews frequently reporting sick should be rostered off from flying duties and must be subjected to medical evaluation at the earliest. In fact, the management has ordered to set up a list of the habitual offenders to take necessary action against them.

There are rules for those who report sick at the last minute as well. New guidelines state that crew reporting sick within six hours of scheduled departure must be viewed very seriously and such crew should be sent for medical evaluation at the earliest. The cash-strapped airline also said that it would be considered unauthorised absenteeism if a crew member reported sick and remained absent from flying duties for more than five days.

Disagreeing with the rules, Aviation expert Mohan Ranganathan said, "Air India has one yardstick on enforcement of rules when it comes to their blue-eyed boys like (Arvind) Kathpalia (failed pre-flight breath analyzer test twice) and another for others. You can't keep changing rules at whims and fancies of each CMD or minister. Sometimes, the habitual drunkenness warrants get promotions while a sick get the punishment."

Air India has about 2,200 crew members for domestic circles and only 800 of them are permanent. For its international circles, there are 1,000 permanent cabin crew members and 1,800 are on contract.

Experts say the airline needs at least 4,000-5,000 more crew members. Sources say the management has not been hiring cabin crew members for over a year amid uncertainty around the government's plans to sell the national carrier. Experts also point out that the shortage of crew is also a violation of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) guidelines.