Career profile Flight Attendant

Table of Contents

• What does a Flight Attendant do?
• What is a typical salary for a Flight Attendant?
• What personality traits are common among Flight Attendants?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Flight Attendants need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does a Flight Attendant do?

Flight Attendants monitor safety of the aircraft cabin.

In addition, Flight Attendants provide services to airline passengers, explain safety information, serve food and beverages, and respond to emergency incidents.

What kind of tasks does a Flight Attendant perform regularly?

Flight Attendants are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

• Verify that first aid kits and other emergency equipment, including fire extinguishers and oxygen bottles, are in working order.
• Announce and demonstrate safety and emergency procedures, such as the use of oxygen masks, seat belts, and life jackets.
• Monitor passenger behavior to identify threats to the safety of the crew and other passengers.
• Walk aisles of planes to verify that passengers have complied with federal regulations prior to takeoffs and landings.
• Direct and assist passengers in emergency procedures, such as evacuating a plane following an emergency landing.
• Prepare passengers and aircraft for landing, following procedures.
• Administer first aid to passengers in distress.
• Determine special assistance needs of passengers, such as small children, the elderly, or disabled persons.
• Attend preflight briefings concerning weather, altitudes, routes, emergency procedures, crew coordination, lengths of flights, food and beverage services offered, and numbers of passengers.
• Reassure passengers when situations, such as turbulence, are encountered.
• Check to ensure that food, beverages, blankets, reading material, emergency equipment, and other supplies are aboard and are in adequate supply.
• Prepare reports showing places of departure and destination, passenger ticket numbers, meal and beverage inventories, the conditions of cabin equipment, and any problems encountered by passengers.
• Announce flight delays and descent preparations.
• Greet passengers boarding aircraft and direct them to assigned seats.
• Assist passengers entering or disembarking the aircraft.
• Conduct periodic trips through the cabin to ensure passenger comfort and to distribute reading material, headphones, pillows, playing cards, and blankets.
• Inspect and clean cabins, checking for any problems and making sure that cabins are in order.
• Operate audio and video systems.
• Answer passengers' questions about flights, aircraft, weather, travel routes and services, arrival times, or schedules.
• Collect money for meals and beverages.
• Heat and serve prepared foods.
• Inspect passenger tickets to verify information and to obtain destination information.
• Assist passengers in placing carry-on luggage in overhead, garment, or under-seat storage.

The above responsibilities are specific to Flight Attendants. More generally, Flight Attendants are involved in several broader types of activities:

What is a Flight Attendant salary?

What personality traits are common among Flight Attendants?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as a Flight Attendant are usually higher in their Enterprising, Social, and Conventional interests.

Flight Attendants typically have very strong Enterprising interests. Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

Also, Flight Attendants typically have strong Social interests. Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Lastly, Flight Attendants typically have moderate Conventional interests. Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as a Flight Attendant tend to value Relationships, Support, and Working Conditions.

Most importantly, Flight Attendants very strongly value Relationships. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment.

Second, Flight Attendants very strongly value Support. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer supportive management that stands behind employees.

Lastly, Flight Attendants moderately value Working Conditions. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer job security and good working conditions.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Flight Attendants must consistently demonstrate qualities such as concern for others, dependability, and adaptability/flexibility.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Flight Attendants, ranked by importance:

What education and training do Flight Attendants need?

Working as a Flight Attendant usually requires a high school diploma.

Flight Attendants need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with this occupation.

Educational degrees among Flight Attendants

• 0.6% did not complete high school or secondary school
• 14.1% completed high school or secondary school
• 31.9% completed some college coursework
• 11.1% earned a Associate's degree
• 36.0% earned a Bachelor's degree
• 5.0% earned a Master's degree
• 1.2% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Flight Attendants

Important Abilities needed by Flight Attendants

Flight Attendants must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Flight Attendants need abilities such as oral expression, speech clarity, and oral comprehension in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Flight Attendants, ranked by their relative importance.

Critical Skills needed by Flight Attendants

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Flight Attendants frequently use skills like speaking, active listening, and monitoring to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Flight Attendants, ranked by their relative importance.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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