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.
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.”
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