………The airline is pushing to extend the policy to pilots at its QantasLink regional subsidiary.

By Zach Vasile

Australian flag carrier Qantas is facing growing backlash over plans to extend a ban on beards for pilots to its regional airline.

Qantas mainline and Jetstar pilots are already prohibited from growing facial hair, and under a proposal announced in July, that rule would apply to QantasLink pilots as well. Pilots working for the regional brand are currently permitted to sport short, tidy beards on the job.

The carrier says that the ban is about safety, not strictly appearances, and it commissioned a study from the U.K.-based defense technology and research firm QinetiQ that raised concerns about pilots’ facial hair interfering with the seal of oxygen masks.

“[QinetiQ’s] review of existing global evidence concluded that facial hair can compromise the seal of emergency oxygen masks, reducing their effectiveness when they’re needed most,” the airline wrote to pilots, according to messages seen and first reported on by The Australian.

But QinetiQ’s study is now being challenged by an expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.

Professor John French presented Qantas with a rebuttal of QinetiQ’s research using a 2024 Embry-Riddle study that found no evidence pilots’ beards cause mask leaks, hypoxia, or other problems.

French also pointed out that QinetiQ relied on studies from the 1970s and ‘80s, many of which were conducted at sea level using now-obsolete technology, such as military respirators that would not be used in civilian air transport.

The critique also faulted the company for spending “over 70 pages dismissing peer-reviewed or empirically valid research using speculative counterpoints rather than offering alternative data” and using “risk language (‘potentially catastrophic,’ ‘early incapacitation’) without correlating to any recorded instances of harm or failure.”

According to The Australian, QinetiQ said it found flaws in the Embry-Riddle study and took the unusual step of writing to the journal that published it to raise concerns.

Pushback From Pilots

Qantas is currently reviewing feedback from pilots about the proposed rule change for QantasLink. It is expected to make a final decision on the beard ban in the coming weeks.

If posts on popular pilot fora are any indication, most are decidedly against prohibitions on facial hair.

“It is indicative of an arrogant Qantas management who always feel they know best and enjoy lecturing all who will listen,” one contributor wrote.

Some opponents of the ban have seized on the Royal Australian Air Force’s 2022 decision to permit facial hair, including beards, provided they are kept neat and professional-looking. Military officials said the change was meant to help the service branch “evolve and modernize.”

The Australian and International Pilots Association, which represents Qantas pilots, has also registered its disapproval of the airline’s beard ban and any extension of it. In filings obtained by The Australian, the union said it made no sense for Qantas management to relax dress rules for flight attendants while continuing to enforce outdated standards on pilots.

Up until 2023, Qantas’ female flight attendants had to wear makeup and heels, and male flight attendants could not wear their hair long.

“Facial hair is now commonplace, and it appears inconsistent for Qantas Group to offer cabin crew modern flexibility in dress and grooming while enforcing outdated standards on pilots without scientific consensus,” the AIPA wrote.

Airlines around the world vary in their treatment of pilots’ facial hair. Most U.S.-based carriers still prohibit beards, but British Airways, Virgin Australia, Emirates, and Cathay Pacific, among others, allow them.