The page for WORK LIFE.
Cabin crew delivers babies (Vid)|.Working Life.|.Setup of the Department.|. MAS Safety Briefing.|. Joys - First Trip To London.|.Pictures.|
A peep into working life of an air hostess or cabin crew.
Duties of a cabin crew or airhostess.
Cabin Crew are responsible for both the safety and the welfare of passengers on board.
On the safety aspect, the crew is expected to have a comprehensive knowledge of safety procedures and to be able to handle emergency situations such as aircraft evacuation or loss of cabin pressure. Before each flight, cabin crew prepare themselves by reading up on service procedures, customs & immigration information and attend the pre-flight briefing.
On the aspect of delivering excellent service to passengers, the crews are well trained on the products knowledge and delivery methods. It is also important that the crew understand and ready to address the special needs of each unique customer.
Working hours, weekends and public holidays.
The working hours is irregular and does not tie up to weekends or public holidays. It is driven by the aircraft schedule, which is dependent on many factors, such as customers requirement, aircraft availability. As such a crew will be expected to work on weekends and public holidays. If you are operating long-haul flights, you will be away from home for extended periods.
The working hours can be rather long. A direct flight from Singapore to London may take about 13 hours, adding the 2 hours prior to flight and 1 hour after flight, the crew has to be alert for the 16 hours stretch.
Base station
Depending on the airline, the airline may have single base or multiple bases operation. A base is the station where you will spend most of the time. It is also the station where the crew is suppose to reside the company will not pay the crew any allowance when you are at base station. Some airlines have specific purpose crew, for example, a special sets of crews are required to handle the Japanese tourist. So the crew will only operate for one sector such as Tokyo – Kuala Lumpur – Tokyo.
Compensation and Benefits
Salary for a new cabin crew
When the crew graduated, he/she can look up to earning around to about SGD$3,500 a month. There will be annual increment, one some airline, link to inflation and on some can be fixed to between 5 to 10%.
Major contribution to the income will be the daily allowances being away from base.It can be to the figure about SGD 100 per day.
Benefits as a cabin crew
As a cabin crew with a typical airline, the cabin crew will be entitled to the following benefits:
a. Free travel to any airlines' destination once a year. The flight can be confirmed subject the agreed seats allocation. Some airline allocate 5% of the seats on the selected flight for staff.
b. The traveling at other times will be a a discounted rate. The discount will depend on the year of services. For more than 10 years of service, the staff will pay only 10% od the standard rate.
c. Company Bonus as per agreement;
d. Medical and Dental
Career Development.
The levels of the career will depends on the airline. The following is a sample from one of the leading airline, which had four level of operating crews:
level 1: New recruits starting out as a Flight Steward – narrow body aircrafts
depending on the opening, the next step will be wide body aircraft /
level 2 Stewardess can look forward to promotions to Leading to
level 3 Chief Steward/ Stewardess
level 4 Inflight Supervisors.
The next level will be the management level. The main roles will be managing rather than flying as a crew. The widebody aircraft such as B747, the crews will be under an Inflight Supervisors. The smaller aircraft can be led my a chief steward/stewardess.
A tailored training path is also in place for our crew at each stage of their career progression. With each promotion, the crew will be trained to undertake new responsibilities and be role model to guide and mentor junior crew.
Employment as A Airhostess
After your had completed the interview, you may have to wait for a month before you receive the result. Some airlines will inform you whether you are successful or not whereas others would only communicate with the successful candidates.
Once you receive the job offer, then the formalities will start, the medical check up, forms to fill orientation programs and others. Then the training will commence:
The Trainings.
Once you are As a cabin crew trainee, you will undergo a comprehensive training program of about 3.5 months that will cover topics such as:
Introduction to Industry
Introduction to the aircraft type, the related equipments.
Product Knowledge including Food & Beverage
Customer Services, Service Procedures
Passenger Handling
Deportment & Grooming
Language & Communication Skills
Safety Equipment Procedures
First Aid, medical emergency and medical training
Aviation Security
The Certification
The crews have to be certified annually. This is to ensure that the crew are able to perform the safety and emergency procedures. If he fail, he will have to undergo a retraining process and will be allowed another resit.
