W ith starry-eyed dreams of a glamorous life of traveling all over the world, I receive messages on a regular basis from readers of The Gate who are interested with how to become a flight attendant for a commercial airline — and by the sheer numbers of people who do apply, the chances are rarely in their favor…
…but if you possess this one skill, you will significantly increase your odds of securing the opportunity to become a flight attendant.
One Skill You Need for a Better Chance to Become a Flight Attendant
The one skill which you need for a better chance to become a flight attendant is to be bilingual, with English as one of the required languages — and, of course, your chances further improve with each additional language in which you are fluent. If you are fluent in Dutch and Italian, you are in luck, as all three legacy airlines are looking for you to apply for the role of flight attendant.
Here are the current job listings for flight attendants from the three legacy carriers based in the United States; and direct links to the listing for job opportunities for flight attendants are embedded in the name of the airline if you want access to them with one click:
American Airlines
People who can speak Chinese, Dutch, Cantonese, Japanese and Italian are in the most demand to fill positions to become a flight attendant for American Airlines.
Delta Air Lines
People who can speak Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian and Mandarin are in the most demand to fill positions to become a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines.
United Airlines
People who can speak Cantonese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin and Portuguese are in the most demand to fill positions to become a flight attendant for United Airlines — although there appears to be openings for flight attendants who know English to be based in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Newark, Los Angeles, Houston, Denver, and both airports which serve the greater District of Columbia metropolitan area.
As I reported in this article, one airline which is still seeking qualified applicants to fill the open positions it has for flight attendants is Frontier Airlines.
“We are always looking for great talent in the following areas: Flight Attendant” suggests that Alaska Airlines is perpetually and continuously searching for flight attendants.
At the time that this article was written, JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines have positions for an inflight team leader and a flight attendant supervisor respectively; but they require prior experience as a flight attendant.
No results were found when searching for open flight attendant positions at Allegiant Air and Spirit Airlines at this time.
The official Internet web site of Sun Country Airlines was down at the time this article was written, as you can see by the screen shot below.
Hey — I tried.
Summary
There is a massive amount of training entailed in becoming a flight attendant; so please read this article for a taste of what kind of training is involved. Much of the training — which deals with what to do in emergency situations — is thankfully rarely performed by flight attendants during an actual flight; but they need to be trained so that they are prepared for every possibly scenario. If you are actually selected for the position, be prepared to spend weeks of grueling training and constantly tested in order to be selected; and if you are fortunate enough to be hired, you will endure ongoing training for the remainder of your career as a flight attendant — not to mention having to deal with long hours and unruly passengers.
In addition, constantly traveling can take a toll on you emotionally as well as physically; and it can substantially affect your personal life — so please read this article pertaining to how you might want to think twice about becoming a flight attendant.
If none of the information in the two paragraphs you just read has deterred you from your interest in becoming a flight attendant and you are fluent in one of the aforementioned languages sought by the three legacy airlines, then you should consider applying for the job — but although your chances improve with knowing at least a second language fluently, do not mistake that for automatic consideration for the role.
Photograph ©2007 by Brian Cohen.
