Flight Attendants
Monitor safety of the aircraft cabin. Provide services to airline passengers, explain safety information, serve food and beverages, and respond to emergency incidents.
Most important skills
- Speaking
- Active Listening
- Monitoring
- Social Perceptiveness
- Service Orientation
- Coordination
- Reading Comprehension
- Critical Thinking
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- Public Safety and Security
- English Language
- Transportation
- Psychology
- Geography
- Computers and Electronics
- Personnel and Human Resources
What the work involves
- Direct and assist passengers in emergency procedures, such as evacuating a plane following an emergency landing.
- Announce and demonstrate safety and emergency procedures, such as the use of oxygen masks, seat belts, and life jackets.
- Walk aisles of planes to verify that passengers have complied with federal regulations prior to takeoffs and landings.
- Verify that first aid kits and other emergency equipment, including fire extinguishers and oxygen bottles, are in working order.
- Administer first aid to passengers in distress.
- Attend preflight briefings concerning weather, altitudes, routes, emergency procedures, crew coordination, lengths of flights, food and beverage services offered, and numbers of passengers.
- Prepare passengers and aircraft for landing, following procedures.
- Determine special assistance needs of passengers, such as small children, the elderly, or persons with disabilities.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Conventional, Social, Realistic.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (70.3% of respondents)
- Related experience
- None (48.8%)
- On-the-job training
- Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month (47.4%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 2: Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Flight Attendants is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Very high | Higher on contact with others than 90% of occupations compared | 89% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Very high | Higher on dealing with the public than 99% of occupations compared | 87% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | High | Higher on teamwork than 74% of occupations compared | 65% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very high | Higher on freedom to make decisions than 83% of occupations compared | 59% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | Very high | Higher on time pressure than 89% of occupations compared | 68% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Conflict situations | Very high | Higher on conflict situations than 98% of occupations compared | 56% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Very high | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 99% of occupations compared | 63% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Consequence of error | Very high | Higher on consequence of error than 96% of occupations compared | 63% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely serious” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: very high
- Conflict situations: very high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: very high
- Consequence of error: very high
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 0.89%
- Contact with others about half the time: 0%
- Contact with others most of the time: 10.52%
- Constant contact with others: 88.58%
n = 23, Incumbent 08/2021
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 0%
- Very important: 12.83%
- Extremely important: 87.17%
n = 23, Incumbent 08/2021
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 0.89%
- Important: 10.52%
- Very important: 23.35%
- Extremely important: 65.23%
n = 23, Incumbent 08/2021
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0.77%
- Very little freedom: 0%
- Limited freedom: 4.46%
- Some freedom: 35.41%
- A lot of freedom: 59.35%
n = 23, Incumbent 08/2021
Time pressure
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 10.52%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 0.77%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 21.05%
- Every day: 67.65%
n = 23, Incumbent 08/2021
Conflict situations
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 0%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 16.89%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 27%
- Every day: 56.1%
n = 23, Incumbent 08/2021
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 0%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 2.3%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 35.15%
- Every day: 62.55%
n = 23, Incumbent 08/2021
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 2.8%
- Fairly serious: 2.8%
- Serious: 3.19%
- Very serious: 27.92%
- Extremely serious: 63.29%
n = 23, Incumbent 08/2021
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O*NET-SOC 53-2031.00 · SOC 53-2031 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8