Choosing air hostess as a career comes with a lot of responsibilities as well as a lot of perks. An air hostess plays an important role in ensuring the comfort and safety of the passengers and in return gets a good pay. This career also ensures that they get to travel a lot and meet different people from around the world. Air hostesses are also known as flight attendants, cabin crew, stewards or cabin attendants.  The vast growth in the aviation sector has opened a good career opportunity for young girls and boys.

This field needs dedication and enthusiasm to succeed. To be eligible for becoming an air hostess, one must have passed 10 +2 or equivalent and pursue a degree/ certificate/ diploma programme in a relevant discipline. Also, the ones aspiring to become an air hostess or a steward must have a pleasing personality, well-groomed physique and good communication skills. Ones looking for a nine to six job may have to give air hostess as a career a second thought as it demands availability at odd hours as the flights operate at night too.

About the course: The course comes under the ‘Aviation and Hospitality’ management. Air-hostess is a demanding career, which is required to maintain a high decorum of dressing and to be a soft-spoken person. She is expected to mix well with people from diverse background. Some of the responsibilities of an air-hostess towards her crew are – to serve them well; answer to their queries; brief passengers about flight and safety measures to be taken during an emergency; submit flight report and handle any emergency situation when required including any medical crisis.

Eligibility criteria: To apply for the course one has to have mastery over spoken English and other foreign languages, should be 18 – 26 years, have passed 10+2 with the degree in hospitality, or other graduate degrees with the height of minimum 157.5 cm and weight proportionate to the height. They must be eligible for an Indian passport, unmarried with perfect eyesight, good health, fair to clear complexion and 6/24 vision in each eye. There will be an initial screening followed by a written test, group discussion and personal interviews. Accepted candidates are put through necessary training in relevant procedures.

What do they do? The job profile of an air hostess or a flight steward may seem easy, but it brings with itself many responsibilities on board as well as when they are serving duty on the ground. The job responsibilities of an air hostess involve greeting the passengers and making them comfortable during the flight, demonstrating the safety instructions to the passengers, answering the calls of the passengers, serving meals and refreshments, providing emergency medical assistance if required and conveying the message from the pilot in case of turbulence or emergency.

Air Hostesses work not only when aboard but also when they are on the ground before and after the flight. When on the ground, they perform a different set of duties to make sure that the passengers fly with ease.

Career and job: There is a good career in this field. An air-hostess is required to oversee everything related to the passengers before and after the flight takes off. An experienced air-hostess gets the opportunity to work with international airlines. After doing the course, a candidate will get the opportunity to work with domestic airlines.

They do not need to fly for more than 72 hours in a month. In addition, they get a handsome salary by airlines. They also get the opportunity to meet people from different backgrounds during their work.

Remunerations: Initially, an air-hostess gets a salary of Rs 35,000-to 40,000, which later rises to Rs 75,000 to 90,000. In International airlines, they get more salaries compared to domestic airlines. On good work, they are promoted from being an air-hostess to the Senior flight attendant and then as Head Attendant.

The writer is director of Flying Queen Air-Hostess Institute