Eyesight, glasses and laser surgery: what every airline I checked actually requires for cabin crew in 2026
-
#1 Hotel school in Lyon, applying next year to Air France and Emirates, and I wear glasses (minus 3.5 in both eyes). I asked in three groups and got three different answers, so I read the actual requirements pages and asked crew on here directly. Putting it in one place.
The general rule
Almost no airline requires perfect uncorrected vision for cabin crew. Pilots, yes. Cabin crew, no. What they require is corrected vision to a standard, usually 6/6 or 6/9 with lenses, and that you can see well enough to operate in an emergency, including with smoke in the cabin. Some airlines restrict glasses in the cabin for image reasons and expect contact lenses on duty.
What I confirmed
- Emirates: corrected vision acceptable. Contact lenses preferred on duty, glasses allowed with a conservative style. The medical checks corrected vision. Laser surgery accepted after a healing period, usually with a letter from the surgeon.
- Qatar Airways: similar to Emirates. Crew report being asked about lens prescription on the medical questionnaire, not refused for it.
- Etihad: corrected vision fine, glasses allowed on duty within the grooming standard.
- Air France: corrected vision, no restriction on glasses that I could find, the medical is the standard French aeromedical exam for cabin crew (the CCA medical).
- Lufthansa: German AME medical, corrected vision acceptable, lenses or glasses.
- British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair: corrected vision, glasses acceptable, no uncorrected minimum published.
- Singapore Airlines: corrected vision acceptable but crew on this forum say glasses are not worn in the cabin and contacts are expected. Worth confirming at the walk in.
- Turkish Airlines: corrected vision within a range, they publish a maximum prescription for some roles, ask at the assessment.
- Delta, United, American: corrected vision, glasses fine.
The EU rule underneath all of this
In Europe cabin crew need a cabin crew medical report under EASA rules. It is done by an aeromedical examiner or an occupational health doctor and it checks vision (corrected is fine), hearing, general health and a few specific things. It is not the pilot Class 1. If you can see a bus timetable with your glasses on, you are not going to fail on eyes.
Laser surgery
Every airline I asked accepts it. The condition is stability: typically three to six months after the procedure with a surgeon's letter confirming a stable result. Do not have it done the month before a medical.
Colour vision
This is the one people forget. Some airlines test it, because reading the emergency equipment indicators and certain displays matters. Mild colour deficiency is usually accepted for cabin crew where it would not be for pilots, but it is asked about. If you know you have it, be ready to say so.
If anyone has been refused for eyesight at any of these, please say which and why. I have not found a single case, which makes me suspicious that I am missing something.
-
#2 Air France, and correct on the CCA medical. Glasses are completely normal in our cabin, I fly with a colleague who is minus 6. The one thing they check is that you have a spare pair or lenses with you on duty, which is written somewhere in the manual and nobody enforces.
-
#3 Lufthansa Frankfurt. Also correct. The AME asked me to read the chart with my lenses in and that was the whole eye test. Colour vision was the plates, and a colleague with mild red green deficiency passed with a note on the file.
-
#4 SIA: contacts on duty is the reality even if the page does not say it. Nobody wears glasses in the cabin. You can wear them on the crew bus. Plan for lenses and a spare pair in your bag.
-
#6 @parisgirl only at the medical, and it is a corrected vision check, not a limit on the prescription itself.
-
#7 Turkish Airlines for the record: the published limit for cabin crew was within plus or minus 4 dioptres when I joined, checked at the medical. Above that they asked for a specialist report, not an automatic no. Might have changed, ask on the day.
-
#8 Porter in Canada: Transport Canada medical for cabin crew is a simple form and a doctor's signature, corrected vision is fine, nobody has ever asked me about glasses. North America is the relaxed end of this.