Life As a Flight Attendant

Career Description Provide personal services to ensure the safety, security, and comfort of airline passengers during flight. Greet passengers, verify tickets, explain use of safety equipment, and serve food or beverages.

Life As a Flight Attendant: What Do They Do?

• Announce flight delays and descent preparations.
• Conduct periodic trips through the cabin to ensure passenger comfort and to distribute reading material, headphones, pillows, playing cards, and blankets.
• Attend preflight briefings concerning weather, altitudes, routes, emergency procedures, crew coordination, lengths of flights, food and beverage services offered, and numbers of passengers.
• Take inventory of headsets, alcoholic beverages, and money collected.
• Check to ensure that food, beverages, blankets, reading material, emergency equipment, and other supplies are aboard and are in adequate supply.
• Greet passengers boarding aircraft and direct them to assigned seats.

Things a Flight Attendant Should Know How to Do

When polled, Flight Attendants say the following skills are most frequently used in their jobs:

Speaking: Talking to others to convey information effectively.

Social Perceptiveness: Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.

Service Orientation: Actively looking for ways to help people.

Active Listening: Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.

Monitoring: Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.

Coordination: Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.

Related Job Titles

• Door and Arrival Attendant
• Flight Attendant/Air Transportation Supervisor
• Flight Crew Member
• Purser
• Flight Steward

Job Outlook for Flight Attendants

In 2016, there was an estimated number of 116,600 jobs in the United States for Flight Attendant. New jobs are being produced at a rate of 10.2% which is above the national average. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts 11,900 new jobs for Flight Attendant by 2026. There will be an estimated 14,200 positions for Flight Attendant per year.

The states with the most job growth for Flight Attendant are Florida, Oregon, and Washington. Watch out if you plan on working in Idaho, Alaska, or Connecticut. These states have the worst job growth for this type of profession.

Flight Attendant Salary

The salary for Flight Attendants ranges between about $28,950 and $80,870 a year.

Flight Attendants who work in Oregon, Texas, or Arizona, make the highest salaries.

Below is a list of the median annual salaries for Flight Attendants in different U.S. states.

State	Annual Mean Salary
Arizona	$65,680
California	$51,990
Colorado	$47,150
Florida	$62,610
Illinois	$53,220
Indiana	$60,080
Massachusetts	$61,610
Michigan	$55,310
Minnesota	$50,560
Nevada	$57,190
New York	$48,960
North Carolina	$54,190
Ohio	$52,760
Oregon	$80,410
Pennsylvania	$68,410
Texas	$58,820
Utah	$48,250
Washington	$77,450

What Tools do Flight Attendants Use?

Below is a list of the types of tools and technologies that Flight Attendants may use on a daily basis:

• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Windows
• SBS International Maestro Suite

How to Become a Flight Attendant

What kind of Flight Attendant requirements are there?

What work experience do I need to become a Flight Attendant?

Flight Attendants Sector

Below are examples of industries where Flight Attendants work:

References:

• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• College Factual
• O*NET Online

Image Credit: Tech. Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol via U.S. Air Force photo

More about our data sources and methodologies.