Swimming for cabin crew explained once and for all: what each airline tests, 25 versus 50 metres, the life jacket and what to do if you cannot swim yet
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#1 Air NZ purser, and the swimming question appears in every requirements thread, every training thread and every assessment thread on this forum, with different numbers. Here is the consolidated version, airline by airline as crew have reported it, so the applicants who cannot swim know exactly what they need and the ones who can stop worrying.
Why it exists
The ditching drill. If the aircraft lands on water, the crew have to get the passengers into the rafts and themselves into the rafts, in a life jacket, in open water. The regulator requires the airline to train it and the airline needs you to be able to do it. That is all. Nobody is asking for a swimming medal.
What is actually tested
Two different things that applicants confuse. The swim: a distance unaided, without a life jacket, to show you can move in water. The drill: the life jacket on, the jump from a platform, swimming or floating to a raft, getting in, helping others in. The drill is the real requirement and the life jacket does most of the work. The swim is the airline checking you will not panic.
By airline, as reported on this forum
- Emirates, Qatar, Etihad: a drill in the training pool with the life jacket; an unaided swim of a short distance (around 25 metres) is expected; weak swimmers pass with the instructor and crew confirm it.
- Ryanair: 25 metres unaided, then the drill; Connor's thread.
- easyJet, Jet2, TUI, BA, Virgin: a swim of around 25 metres and the drill during training; UK carriers vary slightly.
- Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Air France, KLM: a swim and the drill in training, with the distance in the 25 to 50 range depending on the airline's own rule.
- Air New Zealand, Qantas, Virgin Australia: 50 metres unaided and treading water, tested properly, as the regulators require, before or early in training; Megan and Chris's threads.
- SIA, Cathay, JAL, Korean Air: a swim test at the recruitment or early training stage, around 25 to 50 metres, and the drill; the Asian carriers test it earlier than the Europeans.
- US carriers: a drill in training with the life jacket and a swimming ability declaration; the formal distance test is less universal.
- Indian carriers (IndiGo, Air India): 25 metres and the drill, under DGCA, Deepak's thread.
The honest truth about the drill
The life jacket floats you. The raft entry is the hard part physically and it is taught as a technique (the kick, the pull, the roll). Weak swimmers pass the drill with the instructor beside them at every airline crew have reported. The applicants who fail are the ones who hid it and panicked.
If you cannot swim yet
Six to ten lessons at any public pool will get a non swimmer to 25 metres. Twenty will get most people to 50. Start before you apply, not before the course. Tell the airline at the assessment if asked; some arrange help. And do not let the pool stop an application: it is the most fixable requirement on the list.
For the crew reading
Add your airline's current distance below if it is not here or has changed. This thread should be the one the applicants find.
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#2 Air NZ training, and 50 metres plus treading water tested in week one, exactly as listed. Two of 18 struggled and passed with help in week two. The life jacket does the drill. The 50 is the airline checking you will not panic. Chris has it.
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#3 Ryanair, and 25 metres then the drill, confirmed. The person on my course who hid it became an afternoon. Six lessons before the course would have been a morning.
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#4 Emirates, and the training pool drill with the life jacket is the real test and the weak swimmers pass with the instructor, as I wrote from fire week. The 25 metre swim is checked. Nobody has failed training for the pool in my batch or the ones around it.
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#5 SIA, and the swim is at the early training stage for us, around 50 metres and the drill, tested properly. The Asian carriers test it earlier, as Chris says, which is better because you know by week two.
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#6 American, and the US version is the drill in the training pool with the life jacket and a declaration. The formal distance test is not universal at the majors. Chris's list is right for us.
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#7 Qantas domestic, and 50 metres and the treading water, tested, as for Air NZ. The Australian regulators want it and the airlines test it. Learn the 50 before you apply. It is the most fixable thing on the list, exactly.
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#8 FlySafair, and 25 metres and the drill under the South African regulator, with the swimming the thing the men on my assessment assumed and failed. Six lessons. Before, not after.