Chief purser
The top cabin rank at airlines with a two-tier purser structure, leading multiple pursers on wide-body and ultra-long-haul flights.
Definition
Where an airline runs a two-tier purser structure, the chief purser sits above the cabin-section pursers and commands the whole cabin on wide-body flights. Air France's chef de cabine principal, Singapore Airlines' In-flight Manager and the Chief Steward/Stewardess grades of several Asian carriers are versions of the same rank. On a large aircraft each cabin may have its own purser, with the chief purser coordinating all of them and standing as the single point of contact for the captain.
What it means for you
This is the ceiling of the flying career at most full-service airlines, and the salary bands on this site's senior figures assume you reach it. It typically takes eight to fifteen years, and the rank brings a supervisory workload — appraisals, incident reports, crew welfare on layovers — that some crew love and others deliberately avoid by staying at purser. It is also the usual springboard into ground management, training or base manager roles.
In practice
Singapore Airlines' senior figures of roughly SGD 6,000–7,500 a month apply at Chief Stewardess level and above, well over double a first-year salary at the same airline.
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.
- Base managerRoles & ranksThe ground manager responsible for the cabin crew at one base: attendance, performance, welfare and discipline.
- Wide-bodyFlight operationsAn aircraft with a fuselage wide enough for two aisles — the 777, 787, A330, A350 and A380 — used for long-haul flying.