Flight Attendant

If you are looking for a new career, then you may wish to look into becoming a flight attendant. Flight attendants serve the passengers on a flight, answer questions, and reassure nervous passengers. If you want to learn more, read more about becoming a flight attendant.

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A Flight Attendant Needs Multi-Tasking Skills
Being a flight attendant requires good multi-tasking skills, and it can be a challenge for people who are not accustomed to doing several things at once. You must at the same time enforce the safety rules of the craft, maintain discipline among passengers, serve as a waiter or waitress, answer call buttons, and more. A flight attendant is the person who keeps the passengers of an aircraft happy and calm, assisting them when they need help, and ensuring their safety and comfort.

Like wait staff at restaurants, flight attendants often have a section of the aircraft that they are asked to cover. You may ask for help, and you should work well with the rest of the team, but you must also be able to handle your responsibilities on your own and without direct supervision.

Flight attendants need to be able to handle preparing and serving meals and beverages to the passengers on the flight. They should be physically strong enough to help passengers properly stow their carry-ons; they may need money skills to sell headphones or other on-flight services, and they should be friendly enough to please customers, but still be able to deal with a customer who becomes irate or otherwise unruly. Flight attendants must also often have first aid skills, and the cool head that allows them to use those skills under pressure.

Level Of Skills Required To Be A Flight Attendant
Flight attendants have a high level of required skills and qualifications. In the United States, all flight attendants must be US citizens or must be legal immigrants with a work permit. Many companies that offer international flights prefer their flight attendants to be fluent in at least one language other than their native language, and all of them look for candidates that demonstrate good judgment, dependability, good interpersonal skills, a nurturing or caring disposition, and an ability to accept responsibility for resolving conflicts, a strong work ethic, and good communication skills. Airlines look for candidates with a professional appearance, a friendly disposition, and those who work well under pressure. A flight attendant must also be able to handle the physical requirements of the job, such as lifting and reaching.

To work for an airline, stewardesses and stewards must be at least 18 years old, although some airlines require that you are older. As a minimum, you must have a high school diploma, although many airlines require that their stewardesses and stewards have a college degree in some kind of interpersonal skill, and they must have some basic math and computer skills. Most airlines require experience in customer service for a flight attendant career, and all of them will conduct an extensive background check to ensure that you have not falsified your application and that you can legally enter all countries to which the airline flies (since some countries will not admit entrance to people with certain criminal records).

Flight Attendant Benefits
Flight attendants typically earn a salary of somewhere between $33,320 and $77,410 per year as of 2006 according to the United States Department of Labor; however, the starting wage is much lower for beginning flight attendants, sometimes as low as $15,849 per year with pay raises based on an established scale. There may also be incentive pay for flight attendants who are willing to work on the less desirable shifts, including over holidays, on night or international flights, or for positions that require the flight attendant to take on a higher level of responsibility, including paperwork.

A flight attendant is often allowed to fly for free or at a greatly discounted rate on their own airline, and their immediate family may be granted the same privilege. They may also be allowed to fly at a discounted rate on other airlines; however, some airlines require that a flight attendant be employed with them for a set period of time before they are allowed to take advantage of this kind of benefit.

Other benefits for a flight attendant might include insurance plans for life, health, and dental. They might include a 401K or another retirement plan, sick leave, paid holidays, paid vacations, stock options, or tuition reimbursement. Flight attendants receive a daily expense limit for food while they are working away from home, and their hotel expenses are paid by the airline.

Travel To Varied Destinations As A Flight Attendant
One of the main draws of becoming a flight attendant for many people is the possibility of traveling to foreign or exotic locations as a part of your work. While you may be envisioning a journey to Hawaii, hopping off the plane, and running straight to the beach, it is important to remember that the flight crew has responsibilities after landing to help restore the plane to a “ready to fly” condition, including cleaning and stocking as well as doing a check for lost property.

Once they are actually off duty for the day, many flight attendants find that it is necessary to head straight to the hotel to get enough rest to be ready to leave again during their next scheduled flight, as they are required to be friendly, personable, and put together for the flights.

There are some layovers that last longer, however, and many flight attendants, particularly those with seniority, can choose the choicest flights, staying over in the locale of their choice, and possibly enjoying some of the local flavor while they are off the plane.

A Flight Attendant May Not Have Long Layovers
If you are looking for a job that lets you spend weeks in exotic locations right away, then a flight attendant job may not actually be ideal for you. It takes seniority for a flight attendant to be able to get first choice of jobs, and less than first choice may put you on domestic flights or flights to less desirable locations rather than onto the planes heading for a tropical getaway.

For foreign travel, airline stewardesses and stewards are often required to speak the destination language fluently, and if not, it is at least preferred. If you are monolingual, look to domestic flights.

Even if the stay in your desired location is not long, if you are not being asked to get off one plane and immediately board another, then you may have time to kill in your locale anyway. Although many take this opportunity to get some rest, it is entirely possible to spend some of your time enjoying the local attractions and the local culture. If you look at things from a position of being grateful to have any time at all, then you will enjoy your layovers thoroughly, even when they are short.

Flight Attendants Are Required By Law
The job security of flight attendants is good because they provide a vital function on an aircraft. A flight crew does not just serve meals and drinks; they also have extensive safety training, so they are equipped to handle emergencies as they come up. You may find that you need to have first aid training, training in CPR, and always training with all the emergency procedures that are necessary on an airplane.

The law requires that flight attendants be present on a plane because of the vital safety functions that they perform, including ensuring that the passengers on the flight are following the FAA and the airline’s rules for passenger conduct. A flight attendant must be able to keep the peace on a flight, and to assist passengers in remaining calm and pleasant for the duration of the flight in sometimes less than comfortable conditions.

Flight Attendant Training Centers
Flight attendant jobs are highly competitive. A flight attendant prospect must first complete an intensive training program in order to be hired by the airline. This training can range from 3-8 weeks, and takes place in a training center run by the airline or by another airline that is partnered with the airline at which you are applying. This training camp is not paid, but you do receive free room and board while you are in training. You are not considered an employee of the airline until you have completed the training course.

The airline training centers provide the training that you will need to learn the emergency procedures of the planes. You will learn how to evacuate, how to operate the emergency systems and the proper equipment, how to administer first aid, and how to survive in the water in case of a water landing.

Trainees at these centers are also taught hard skills such as how to deal with irate customers, hijackers, or with terrorist situations. They are taught the company’s policies and how the company operates, and are trained in personal grooming and in weight control to maintain the required proportional weight that most airlines require. Additional training for customs and passport regulations is given to trainees for international programs.

The training and testing are rigorous in order to be certified with the FAA.

The Work Environment Of A Flight Attendant
The employment conditions and work environments for a flight attendant may not be the ideal environment for everyone. If you do not handle pressure well, then another career may be in order. Pressure is applied to flight attendants from the moment they enter the training centers, with drills, tests, and demonstrations to help weed out candidates who will not be cool under duress.

Flight attendants may be required to relocate for their work in order to be within driving distance of the “home base” to which they are assigned. They must be on call with a minimum number of days off each month for at least a year, and sometimes as many as ten before they are allowed to bid for regular jobs. You can expect to be asked to pay for your first uniform and possibly a set of luggage, after which you will be provided with new uniforms according to company policy. Expect to have to undergo a rigorous background check, also, as this is a federal requirement of the FAA.

On the plane itself, the work environment can be stressful and challenging, varying from flight to flight. You must be comfortable in the enclosed environment of the plane and with handling passengers, both of which are tested for in the training.

Flight Attendant Advancement
If you have ambitions for your flight attendant career, then you have a lot of options for advancement at many of the airlines. Because of the exceptional qualities that are required of flight attendants, many airlines know that they can trust a former flight attendant to do an excellent job as he or she moves up the work ladder, whether taking on more responsibility on a flight, or whether choosing to move to a desk job or other non-travel position.

Flight attendants begin on reserve for usually at least a year, being called upon on short notice for extra flights or when regular flight attendants call in sick. They are essentially on a permanent “on call” basis until they have passed their trial period. Once this is past, flight attendants bid monthly for jobs and regular assignments. The top choices go to the most senior flight attendants.

A flight attendant may become a lead or senior flight attendant, a check flight attendant, or a flight attendant supervisor over the course of their career. They may move on to base manager from there, and eventually have the potential to move on to a position like manager or to vice-president of in-flight operations. Additional duties may include recruiting or training, and they may eventually choose a job such as a ticket agent or a public relations specialist.


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