Applicants uncovered the pitfalls of a flight attendant job: “The worst conditions”

“Why are they recruiting new ones when there are a lot of old ones?”

On the eve of the high tourist season, airlines – both Russian and Central Asian – have opened an active recruitment for vacancies of flight attendants, including citizens without work experience. Having taken an interest in the requirements and promises of employers in the post-Soviet space, we compared them with the conditions of the global aviation market and found pitfalls in native wings.

The title Russian air carrier promises successful applicants for the position of a flight attendant a salary of 100-140 thousand rubles. before taxes and a generous social package – 70 days vacation, preferential vouchers to the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mineral Waters, children’s vouchers, medical insurance, paid housing. At the same time, resumes are also accepted from those who have no experience as a flight attendant at all, they are promised to be trained in just 3 months. Not only free, but also with a scholarship.

“Not everything is so festive,” a Muscovite, who has already tried her luck with the Nazis, evaluates the vacancy. – The job description does not say anything about height, weight and age. Only about education not lower than 11 classes and military documents for men. But in fact, without work experience, only those who are under 30 years old are accepted. Also, everyone who is below 165 cm is immediately weeded out. And yet, it turns out, you need to know English. In general, I was screened out at the application level, so other details were simply not provided.

– Doesn’t it seem strange to you that during the pandemic so many already trained flight attendants with flying time and experience were left without work, and now they are looking for new ones, maybe even without experience? – says the ex-stewardess of that same nationalist. – This is a “lure” for young people from regions where transport is deer, and an airplane is a luxury. Even if they learn and take off, they will be put on “reversals” (a round-trip flight without rest at their destination. – Auth.) for 6 working days a week and a contract will be signed for 5 years.

– Is a 5-year employment contract with a reputable airline bad?

– 6 days a week to fly back and forth is very difficult. And if you don’t work out the signed five-year plan, then you pay a penalty for early termination, and this is about 350 thousand. They say that they calculate the time worked and the uniform from the cost of training an applicant without experience. And it is so expensive that those who did not work will have to pay. But the worst thing is that at the same time you can be fired ahead of schedule! The courts are full of such cases, but they are always on the side of the airline.

In RuNet, indeed, there are case materials on the material claim of the air carrier against its ex-flight attendant, who was trained at the expense of the company, but did not work out the agreed period of 3 years. In the light of the foregoing, similar promises from the other two leading domestic “wings” no longer seem so tempting. In addition to what has already been voiced by the National Guard, they also promise “rapid career growth” – from a simple flight attendant to an instructor on board in just 3 years of successful work. True, one of the domestic leaders in air transportation nevertheless immediately clarifies that applicants below 165 cm need not worry. And he indicates the size of the scholarship for training, which the National Guard modestly kept silent about: this is 25 thousand rubles. per month, and before deduction of personal income tax. The second giant of the domestic air transportation market is even more frank: the scholarship is only 15 thousand rubles, English is the basic level, and the salary depends on the “flight”. And he, in turn, depends on the season and how the recruit performs. He will be able to fly daily with one day off a week all summer – he will earn from 85 thousand rubles. It is easy to calculate: the salary of a beginner is about 1000 per flight hour, in summer the average flight time of a flight attendant with a maximum load is 85–90 hours, and in the rest of the time 70–80 hours. Another domestic “wings”, smaller, but now actively developing, honestly warn that under similar conditions they need additional flight attendants only until the end of November.

“Therefore, experienced flight attendants who lost their jobs during the pandemic do not return to Russian companies,” sums up the ex-stewardess of the national airline. “We have the worst conditions, especially now. Flight attendants didn’t get much even before the pandemic, but at least you can bring something from abroad for sale. And now my former airline has banned cabin crew from checking in luggage, only carry-on luggage with them in the cabin.

According to the pros, there are really good conditions in business aviation, but there are also high-level requirements for model parameters and fluent English, as well as fluent Chinese. Good promises are given by one of the Arab airlines: about 200 thousand rubles. monthly plus free accommodation in the UAE for the duration of the contract, which is a minimum of 3 years. True, only those whose application has passed the first stage of the competition will find out the details of the work, and having learned, they begin to doubt: the workload is very large, and the paid vacation is very small. Housing is very modest, thanks for not being right on the plane. And another Arab company that promises more – up to $2,000 per month – requires at least a year’s experience, if not as a flight attendant, then at least in the service sector. But the sweetest thing is the requirement of a carrier in one of the ex-Soviet Asian republics: a successful candidate for the role of a flight attendant there should be fluent in Russian and want to move to Central Asia for permanent residence. In terms of local currency, the lucky person will receive about 40 thousand rubles. per month at full flight load. For comparison, the leading US airline recruits applicants without work experience up to 80 years inclusive, and the average salary of a beginner in terms of rubles is more than half a million monthly.