Cabin crew
The trained crew responsible for passenger safety and service in the cabin — called flight attendants in North America.
Definition
Cabin crew are the certified crew members an airline must carry to manage the cabin: evacuation, fire, first aid and security first, service second. Regulators set the minimum, typically one crew member for every 50 passenger seats installed, and every one of them must hold current safety and emergency procedures training for the aircraft type. "Flight attendant" is the same job under FAA vocabulary; "air hostess" and "stewardess" are older terms still used in parts of Asia and the Middle East.
What it means for you
You are hired as a safety professional who also serves, and the paperwork reflects it: your licence, your medical and your annual recurrent check all depend on the safety side, and it is safety failures, not spilt coffee, that end careers. Whichever word your airline uses, the pay structure is the same shape — a basic plus hourly flying pay plus allowances away from base.
In practice
Emirates recruits cabin crew from over 130 nationalities into a single Dubai base, and a new joiner flies the whole A380 and 777 network from the first month; Delta calls the same job flight attendant and starts its new hires on reserve.
Go deeper
Related terms
4 terms- PurserRoles & ranksThe crew member in charge of the cabin on a flight: briefs the crew, reports to the captain and owns the service and the paperwork.
- Senior cabin crewRoles & ranksUnder EASA, the qualified crew member in charge of the cabin (SCCM); more loosely, any experienced crew above the entry grade.
- Junior cabin crewRoles & ranksEntry-grade crew in their first one to three years, on the lowest pay band and, at seniority airlines, on reserve.
- Flight deckRoles & ranksThe pilots' compartment at the front of the aircraft, and by extension the pilots themselves as distinct from cabin crew.