Leaving to start a business: the crew who opened a café, a travel agency, a recruitment consultancy, and what the flying taught them about running something

Ex Brazilian crew, hotel operations now, and I have watched several ex crew start businesses and I asked four of them what the flying gave them. Here are their answers, anonymised, and my own reflection, for the crew who are thinking about the ground and not about an employer.

The café owner

Ex Gulf crew, ten years, a café in a mid sized European city. What the flying gave her: 'The service. I know how to make forty people feel looked after in an hour with three staff because I did it with 300 and four. My café has queues and the staff stay because I brief them like a purser.'

The travel agency

Ex legacy crew, fifteen years, a specialist travel business for a specific region she flew to for a decade. 'I know the hotels because I stayed in them. I know the airports because I worked them. My clients trust me because I have been there at 6am and I tell them the truth about the transfer.'

The recruitment consultancy

Ex crew, then ground recruitment, then her own consultancy preparing candidates for airline assessments. 'I sat on the other side of the table and I know what the sheet says. It is a real business because the demand is enormous and the free advice online is mostly wrong.' (I have not linked it. The rule about selling applies.)

The uniform alterations business

Ex crew, a sewing skill from before flying, now alters and repairs uniforms for three airlines' crew at a base. 'I know what the grooming check looks for because I failed it once. The crew trust a tailor who has worn the thing.'

What the flying taught them, in common

Calm under a deadline. Being briefed and briefing. Handling a stranger who is angry without taking it home. Reading a room in three seconds at the door. Working with people you did not choose. Getting up at 3:30. And the specific confidence of a person who has done an evacuation drill a hundred times and knows that most business emergencies are not emergencies.

My own reflection

I did not start a business. I went to hotels. But the flying gave me the same things and I use them every day: the calm, the brief, the door greeting at the front desk. A career in the cabin is a management course that pays you to take it. The crew who leave to start something are the ones who realised that.

For crew thinking about it

Start the thing on layovers, small, while flying, as the study thread suggested for degrees. The layover hotel room is a business plan room too. And keep the crew network, because the first customers of every business above were crew.