Why do so many people want to become flight attendants?

We had a story in Friday’s Dallas Morning News about the response to American Airlines’ openings for 1,500 flight attendants: More than 20,000 people, both inside and outside of American, applied.

That indicates that a lot of people want to be flight attendants.

We always hear how badly the flight attendants have been treated through the years, not just because of the big pay cuts and other concessions from 2003. Cut through all the rhetoric, and the profession has indeed taken big steps backwards.

Even with five 1.5 percent annual pay increases from 2004 to 2008, American’s flight attendants are making a great deal less than they were a decade ago.

The contract pushed onto the Association of Professional Flight Attendants last summer will require flight attendants to work more hours, pay more for health benefits, have their pensions frozen and suffer other downgrades to either their lifestyle or disposable income

When most of American’s current flight attendants started working at the carrier, the idea of terrorists killing flight attendants and crashing airplanes as they did in 2001 wasn’t really considered a possibility. The security steps after 2001, the locked and hardened cockpit doors, means that flight attendants are much on their own if bad things happen back in the cabin.

But yet, the idea of working as a flight attendant has a lot of appeal to many people. When Delta opened up applications for 1,000 flight attendant positions in 2010, it attracted some 100,000 applicants.

We asked APFA spokeswoman Leslie Mayo about the strong response to the American Airlines’ openings, and here’s what she responded:

“I am not in the least bit surprised at the response to job openings for AA Flight Attendants. Even though AA’s bankruptcy has left a very sour taste in the mouths of its employees, there is no doubt that the position of flight attendant is still a desirable career because of the efforts of labor unions around the country.

“Flying used to be a one- to two-year job. It is now a career for thousands and thousands of men and women. APFA’s efforts to preserve as much of the FA career as possible during AA’s bankruptcy, while working toward a merger with US Airways, is relentless.”

We asked American management about their reaction to the 20,000-plus applicants, and spokeswoman Missy Cousino had this response:

“We’re thrilled with the overwhelming response to our regular flight attendant job postings, and believe we now have enough qualified candidates to consider for all of these openings.

“In the meantime, job postings for several language speakers, including Korean, Mandarin, Finnish, Japanese, German and Italian, will remain open, and we look forward to hearing from those candidates.

“We’re pleased to see that so many candidates are interested in joining American and we look forward to welcoming new members to our team very soon.”