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Working as a Flight Attendant

What is it like to work as a flight attendant? Listen to the interview and complete the tasks.
Flight attendant outside an airplane. Photo.
Image: NTB scanpix, Shutterstock / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Listening

Two Australian flight attendants are being interviewed about their jobs.

Flight Attendants

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Audio: Morten Serkland / CC BY-SA 4.0

Check your understanding

Based on the information in the interview, make questions for the answers below. Only check the suggested solution after you have completed your own questions.

  1. Qantas
  2. Positive and negative sides to it
  3. Cleaning up mess
  4. Travelling the world
  5. Time changes
  6. 17 hours
  7. The whole crew has to agree.
  8. A two month roster which they get two weeks in advance
  9. Inland Australia and international routes mostly from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane
  10. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hawaii, and Hong Kong, for example
  11. Not really, mostly just turbulence
  12. A tyre burst
  13. Regular practices and every six months they have to pass an exam

Suggested solution

  1. Which airline do they work for?
  2. What do they feel about their job?
  3. What is one of the negative aspects of the job?
  4. What is one of the positive aspects of the job?
  5. Is there anything that they find particularly difficult about the job?
  6. How long can they fly in one go?
  7. What are the rules if they are asked to work longer?
  8. What is their work schedule like?
  9. Where does Qantas fly?
  10. What are some of the destinations which they fly to?
  11. Have they experienced any scary episodes?
  12. What happened to one of the women a couple of weeks ago?
  13. What kind of safety training do they have?

Research and learn more

  1. Go to Qantas Careers - Cabin Crew and make notes on the essential requirements needed to become a cabin crew team member.
  2. Sit in pairs and tell your partner what you have found out. What would you say was the most important skill required to become a flight attendant?

Practice a role-play

In pairs, pretend that one of you is a flight attendant and the other is a passenger. Practice a role-play in which the following happens:

  1. The passenger first orders something from the food trolley, but then complains about the quality of the food. You decide how the situation is resolved.
  2. The flight attendant has just gone through the safety information, but a passenger suddenly demands to move to a different seat. You decide whether or not the request is reasonable and try to resolve the situation..
Written by: Anne Scott Hagen and Morten Serkland.
Last revised date 06/21/2018