How to become an Airline Flight Attendant
By Tim Kirkwood | Updated August 8 2024
How to become an Airline Flight Attendant
You’ve seen them in the movies: flying to exotic and faraway places, spending luxurious days in Paris and Rome, indulging the every whim of their wealthy, attractive (and single!) first–class passengers before they jet back to their smartly furnished apartments in Midtown Manhattan or Western Vancouver. The passengers on their flights are all happy, calm, and very sophisticated — and the crews always have plenty of time to chat with each and every passenger. The airplanes that carry them are spacious and comfortable, with aisles so wide you could drive a truck down them. And the Flight Attendants all look like models from the pages of Vogue and GQ. How could you not want to be a Flight Attendant?
Real life is much different than the movies — a fact you must accept before you even consider starting the challenging application process to become a flight attendant. While the above scenario may have been somewhat true during the height of the industry in the sixties and seventies, airline deregulation and economic downturns have vastly altered the industry. Prior to deregulation, the Government set airline fares and routes, which made the system fair for all airlines, regardless of size. The abolition of those regulations in 1978 freed airlines to set fares and routes at whatever the market would bear. In addition, the events of September 11, 2001, have been the turning point of a new phase of the airline industry — the results of which still are being worked out. More than ever before, “survival of the fittest” and “maximizing profits” are the airline industry’s mantras. Dollars and cents control most management decisions, which has led airlines to cut costs wherever they can.
“Maximizing productive crew utilization” has become the standard in the airline industry. For Flight Attendants this approach translates into more work and longer hours for the same or even lower wages. The Flight Attendant Career Guide escorts you through the real world that daily greets every flight attendant. It helps you answer the questions, “Am I right for this career, and is this career right for me?”
Airline recruiters usually say they are looking to hire flight attendants with a pleasant personality who work well with people. While this is generally true, there are additional criteria that can help you get hired. The more education, work experience, and skills that you bring to the interview, the better your chances of standing out from the crowd of applicants who also think they are perfect for the job.
There are times on the job when flight attendants must call upon every personal resource available to get them through difficult situations. You must learn how to interact with people from around the world, respecting individual customs and cultures. Your passengers may have a fear of flying, residual anger from a bad day at work, or a general disorientation due to the unfamiliar surroundings of an aircraft. The only way to learn how to deal with the public is to work with people. This is why airlines put so much emphasis on previous work experience that involves public contact.
Being a flight attendant is a job that offers the opportunity to meet and relate with people from all walks of life. As a flight attendant, you are given an education that can’t be found in any book. You will become more aware of current events, not only because of the people you meet, but because you are often in the very place where news is happening. You may even find yourself a part of news in the making by working on Papal charters, inaugural flights, diplomatic shuttles, or Presidential press tours.
The absolute minimum requirements you must meet to qualify to be hired as a flight attendant include:
- General: U.S. airlines require a social security card, and Canadian airlines require a Social Insurance Number. You will also need to submit to a background check of your previous ten years of education and employment, as well as fingerprinting.
- Age: The minimum age ranges from 18 to 21 years. There is no maximum age. Today, airlines are actively recruiting applicants in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
- Height: The usual range is five feet, two inches to six feet tall. Some airlines hire individuals as short as five feet, while others will hire people as tall as six feet, two inches. Other airlines will conduct a "reach test" to see if you are tall enough to reach the emergency equipment.
- Weight: All airlines look for applicants whose weight is in proportion to their height, and avoid the strict height/weight charts that were used in the 1970s and 1980s. You may be tested to ensure you can fit through the the smallest exit on company aircraft.
- Vision: Must be 20/20 or correctable to 20/20. All airlines allow flight attendants to wear glasses or contact lenses. Glasses worn in–flight must be conservative in style. All airlines accept applicants who have had laser surgery to correct their vision.
- Health: Candidates must be in excellent physical condition and able to pass a thorough physical examination as well as a drug test conducted by the company physician prior to employment. Random drug and alcohol tests will be administered through-out your airline career in accord with federal guidelines.
- https://www.avianation.com/382...Men and women may apply.
- Citizenship: In nearly all cases, you must be a U.S. citizen to work for a U.S. airline, or a Canadian citizen to work for a Canadian airline. If you are not a citizen, you must have a permanent work visa or resident alien card, also known as a green card. Because the supply of applicants exceeds the demand, few, if any, airlines will sponsor you to gain citizenship or resident visas. Nor can you wait until you are interviewing for the job to start applying for your visas.
Your passport must not restrict entry to countries your airline serves. While not all airlines require passports, applying for one now will ensure that you are prepared when you need one. Application forms for passports are available at all U.S. and Canadian post offices, and can take at least two to three weeks to process.
Foreign languages: All U.S. and Canadian airlines require flight attendants to be fluent in English. Most Canadian airlines also require fluency in French. Your chances of getting hired improve if you speak a second language such as French, German, Spanish, Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese), Korean, Arabic, Portuguese or Japanese.
WORK EXPERIENCE THAT COUNTS
The single best work experience you can bring to a flight attendant position is work that puts you directly in contact with the public. Dealing with the public takes practice, and you will need all the practice you can get before dealing with hundreds of people sealed in a tube hurtling through the air at 500 miles per hour! Working the counter at Burger King, Tim Horton's or Taco Bell can enhance your chances of being hired as a flight attendant more than a career as a certified public accountant. List any public contact experience you have when you apply, no matter how trivial it may seem to you, and strive to gain additional experience prior to your interview. Service work rates highly as well. This could be a job as a bartender, waitress, concierge, or caterer.
Airlines like flight attendants who take the initiative. Be sure to mention any volunteer work you’ve done since that shows initiative on your part. You will also want to include any awards or recognition you’ve received at your job or in your community. If you're not comfortable being in front of people, you might join your local Toastmasters organization, which can help you with public speaking. Other appropriate experience includes working in hotels, restaurants, retail sales, cruise ships, travel agencies, tour companies, customer service, car rentals, convention hosting, airport greeting, and hospital work. These types of jobs show that you can work with the same people with whom flight attendants work: the public.
EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS
All airlines require flight attendants to possess at least a high school diploma or a general equivalency degree (G.E.D.). If you’re in school now, stay in school! If you’ve dropped out, go back and get your diploma or G.E.D. It does not matter if you speak five languages; your application to become a flight attendant will be rejected if you do not have at least a high school diploma or G.E.D.
Most airlines also prefer two years of college, largely for the maturity the college experience helps develop. A college education will also improve your chances of securing the job, in part because it reflects a desire to improve yourself. Courses that rate highly with the airlines include: sociology, psychology, history, geography, public speaking, math, and foreign languages. Be sure to list any applicable courses on your airline job application. Some community colleges even offer courses on how to become a flight attendant. And, while you’re at it, be sure to take a course in first aid or cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which the American Red Cross and Red Cross Canada offers in many cities.
Although few airlines formally require you to speak a language in addition to English (or in the case of most Canadian airlines, English and French), you greatly increase your chances of getting hired if you are fluent in several languages native to the countries an airline serves. Airlines also give preference to “language of destination” qualified persons when assigning flight schedules. For example, a French–speaking flight attendant is likely to receive priority to work Paris flights over a more senior flight attendant who does not speak French. You also may receive additional pay for those flights. You will be tested on your language ability, so list only the languages in which you are fluent — not the ones you’ve only begun to study. If you speak English with a strong foreign accent, you may want to take some classes in public speaking. Because flight attendants are responsible for evacuating passengers in an emergency, passengers must be able to understand the attendants clearly — a pronounced foreign accent can undermine your role as an efficient safety instrument. Keep in mind that slang, gutter talk, jive, patois or street talk has no place in the aviation industry. If you find yourself saying things like “He ain’t got no sense,” you might want to reconsider this career move. You do not need to speak “the Queen’s English,” but you will need to speak standard American English with correct grammar while at work.
Many airline “schools” advertise that they will train you and place you with an airline. They tend to charge a fairly substantial fee or tuition for their services, sometimes as much as $2,000 or $3,000. Be careful; you probably do not need to attend one of
these schools. Every airline will send you through its own training course, whether or not you have attended one of these airline schools, or have 20 years experience as a flight attendant at another airline. Everybody starts off on an equal footing. Prior flight attendant experience or training does not exempt you from training with your new airline, nor does it seem to give you any edge in getting hired by another carrier.
A few airlines are outsourcing their training to the Inflight Institute (http:// www.inflightinstitute.com/). While this is an official training center for their member airlines, there is no need or advantage in taking the training before you are hired by the airline.
Carefully investigate any school that charges high tuition or promises placement with an airline. If you want formal preparation for a flight attendant career, stick to the inexpensive courses that adult education centers and community colleges offer. These courses can be found by exploring college catalogs or visiting the campuses in your neighborhood. But remember that the most you can get out of any of these informational courses is just that — information to help you decide if this is the right career for you.
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS OF THE JOB
All airlines will give you a physical examination before you complete training as well as a drug test that the Department of Transportation (DOT) requires. During your flight attendant career you will be subjected to random tests for drug use and alcohol abuse. If you currently take illegal drugs, even on a sporadic or “recreational” basis, quit today! Even if your local government allows recreational use of marijuana, you cannot use it during your career as it will show up in a random drug test — even weeks later. Your application will be rejected if you flunk the mandatory drug test. If you test positive for drugs or alcohol abuse once you are a flight attendant, you will be fired or grounded while you go through rehabilitation. Once you have been dismissed for flunking a drug test, chances are you will never work for an airline again!
You must be in good health with all your faculties functioning. Some health conditions that may disqualify you are high blood pressure, heart problems, chronic sinus, back, or hearing problems, and certain genetic and acquired syndromes. Your eyesight must be 20/20, or correctable to 20/20 with glasses, contacts, or corrective surgery. If you wear glasses, they should be conservative in size and style, with clear un-tinted glass.
While only a couple of airlines will require you to be a non-user of tobacco products, this is a tough environment if you are a smoker. Some of your flights may be 10—15 hours long, and then you still won't be able to light up until you are outside the terminal building. Your crew may be more anxious to get to the layover hotel than they are to wait for you to finish your "butt". This would, therefore, be and excellent time to begin to quit smoking. The new "electronic cigarettes” are also not allowed in flight.
Airlines require that you be at least 18 years old, although some set their minimum as high as 21. Not only does federal law prohibit airlines from discriminating on the basis of age, many airlines have recognized the benefits of hiring mature employees. It’s not uncommon during training for a 19–year–old trainee to sit next to a 40– or 50–year–old trainee. People of all ages wish to travel the world as part of an airline crew. Many middle–aged applicants come to the job as a fulfillment of their lifelong dream to be a flight attendant, which may have been postponed due to marriage, family responsibilities, or child rearing. In fact, the airlines today prefer older applicants in part because they tend to have a better work ethic and be more stable employees.
Minimum and maximum height requirements are generally set at 5 feet, 2 inches, and 6 feet respectively, to ensure that a flight attendant is tall enough to reach emergency equipment and overhead compartments — and short enough to fit into the smaller aircraft. Your weight must be in proportion to your height. Most airlines no longer adhere to strict height/weight charts, but look instead at the overall person. Space is limited in an aircraft, and being too large can prevent you from performing all your duties. Good physical conditioning is important because the work and the long hours are physically demanding.
A typical meal service on a Boeing 777 aircraft can require bending and squatting to serve up to a hundred meals and trays during a span of 90 minutes. This routine may be repeated two or three times in just one day. A flight attendant must also be physically able to open the aircraft doors, which can be quite heavy. You must lift your luggage and that of your passengers who need assistance into the overhead bins. You may also be called upon to carry passengers out of a burning aircraft, or to pull passengers out of their seats in order to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation or operate an on–board heart defibrillator.
Airlines prefer pleasant looking applicants but not necessarily the Vogue model type. A clear complexion, no obvious facial scars, and neat, well–manicured hands are a must. Tattoos have become very popular of late, but not so with the airlines. Therefore, tattoos must not be visible while in uniform. So, if you have "sleeve tatts", then you can expect to wear long-sleeve shirts through your entire career. Body piercing is prohibited except for pierced ears on women (and, at a few airlines, for men as well). Any other body piercing must not be visible while in your airline uniform. Earrings must be small and simple. Hair must be clean and styled — shoulder length for women and collar length for men. Longer hair is acceptable for women if it is tied back or worn up to meet sanitary requirements for handling food. Long hair is not acceptable for men. Some airlines allow beards and mustaches. Compliance with an airline’s published grooming regulations is mandatory. Refusal to comply with published grooming regulations may lead to discipline or dismissal.
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TIM KIRKWOOD, currently in his 48th year as an airline flight attendant for a major US carrier, is the author of THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT CAREER GUIDE. For more information on the Guide, visit us on the web at www.FlightAttendantCareerGuide.com.