Pros & Cons of Being an Air Hostess

Last Updated on August 5, 2023 by Vishnu Nambiar

Do you want to become an Air Hostess? If yes, this article will be of help to you. Here, I’ve listed down some of main pros and cons associated with this profession!

Each profession has a set of pros and cons associated with it! Being a flight steward is not different either! Being a flight steward, you will come across many advantages and some disadvantages!   So before you start seriously pursuing this profession, it is necessary to understand the pros and cons associated with it. This will help you make an informed choice!   Many young Indians dream about becoming an air hostess, flight steward or cabin crew. Why so much craze for this profession, you may ask. Well, this profession is financially very well rewarding.   Along with that, this profession also offers a glamorous lifestyle – accommodation in 5 star hotels, free air travel, chance to travel around the world, other perks etc. In short, life in this profession is quite different from a typical 9 to 5 job!   These are the main reasons why many young Indian women want to become air hostesses. Oh, talking about women, I forgot to mention that this profession is dominated by females.   But male candidates are also eligible to build a career in this sector. They may pursue a career in this sector and become flight stewards or cabin crew members!   Before heading to the meat of the matter – pros and cons of being an air hostess – let me provide you links to some useful guides. Here they are –

• Air Hostess courses in India
• Diploma in Air Hostess training course
• Travel and Tourism courses
• Courses after 12th Science
• Aviation courses

Let us start with the list of advantages. Here they are –

Pros

Glamorous lifestyle

A typical 9 to 5 job involves dull daily commute, same old cubicle and boring files and computer work! But a flight attendant’s work is quite different from it and is not as nearly boring!   An air hostess’s work involves travel, expensive hotels, flying perks and an opportunity ot visit various places. With time, this routine may seem boring. But it is pretty exciting for many of us!

Decent salary

Flight attendants’ salary has dropped a bit now. But the pay is not as bad as it is made to be! Apart from decent pay, flight stewards also get to enjoy other benefits such as free travel, food, accommodation and other perks.

Chance to experience cultures from around the world

Flight attendants travel a lot! Their job takes them to places. And they get paid for this! If you are interested in experiencing the culture and cuisine of foreign places, this profession will be of help to you!

Chance to interact with people from around the world

If you work for an international carrier, you will be interacting with people from around the world. Your colleagues and passengers will be from different parts of the world.   Interacting with them will open up your mind in many ways! You’ll develop communication skills and inter-personal skills.

It’ll broaden your mind

Traveling to various places and interacting with people of different nationalities will simply broaden your mind!

Develop useful skills

As part of this profession, you’ll be trained in areas such as communication skills, first aid, safety procedures, inter-personal skills etc. As a result, you will develop a set of skills, which will be of help throughout your life!   Let us check out the disadvantages associated with this profession. Here they are –

Cons

Early retirement

Thanks to the nature of this profession, flight attendants are forced to take early retirement. For many, this is a serious disadvantage. Starting a second career is not an easy task!   But most airlines help their flight attendants settle into a second career within the aviation sector – ground duty, front desk, office staff etc.

Placement issues for freshers

In India, Air Hostess training institutes have been sprouting at an alarming rate. As a result, the number of applicants has skyrocketed.   This has resulted in cut-throat competition for jobs! In many training institutes, placements are hard to come by! As a result, many freshers remain unemployed or are forced to take up a low-paying job!

Lack of fixed schedule

Having a fixed work schedule has many advantages. For example, it helps us plan things in advance (vacations, party, events etc). In case of many flight attendants, the work schedule of not fixed!   The schedule keeps changing on a monthly basis. As a result, it is difficult to plan things out early!

Health issues

It is not uncommon to see air hostess’ working at odd hours (depending upon their schedule). Yes, there are rules and regulations to ensure that flight attendants get adequate rest after each shift. After all, they are responsible for our safety in the cabin!   But there’s a thing called ‘biological clock’. Working at odd hours messes it up. This results in physical and mental stress. This in turn may lead to mood swings and burnout!

Work during holidays

Festivals are meant to be celebrated with family, aren’t they? But what if you are supposed to fly on Christmas eve or Diwali? Yes, it happens with many flight attendants.

Dealing with ‘difficult people’

Flight attendants are trained to deal with people politely. As long as passengers are good, there’s no trouble in dealing with them. But then there are some ‘difficult passengers’, who are quite hard to deal with. Interacting with them on a daily basis is not an easy task (for that you must have immense patience).

Work safety

Crash landing, mid-air turbulence, hijacking – these are some of the hazards associated with this profession. The odds of these events taking place are very low. Still, these things do exist!

Vishnu Nambiar

I am Vishnu Nambiar a career and educational blogger from India. I am also a full time educational consultant having more than 12 years of experience in the educational sector.

I share articles related to courses, colleges, careers, exam tips and more here.