Recurrent training
The mandatory yearly refresher and check that keeps your SEP, first-aid and type qualifications valid.
Definition
Recurrent training is the periodic requalification every cabin crew member must complete to keep flying, usually a one-to-three-day course with a written exam and practical drills. Under EASA the cycle is twelve months, with certain hands-on items such as fire fighting, wet drill and door operation on a three-year cycle; the FAA runs its own annual recurrent requirements. Miss the validity date and you are unrostered until you complete it.
What it means for you
Recurrent is a fixed date on your roster you cannot swap away, and a check you can fail. Crew treat the weeks before it as revision time, because a failed exam means a resit, a second failure means retraining, and a lapsed date means grounding without pay at some carriers. It is also where you meet colleagues from across the base you never fly with.
In practice
A Qatar Airways crew member with a March validity date is rostered two recurrent days at the Doha training centre in February, with the fire, smoke and door drills done in the cabin mock-up.
Go deeper
Related terms
4 terms- SEPSafety & trainingSafety and Emergency Procedures — the core safety syllabus every cabin crew member is trained and re-examined on.
- Wet drillSafety & trainingPractical ditching training in a pool: life jackets, slide-rafts, righting a raft and survival after a water landing.
- Fire trainingSafety & trainingHands-on training to find and fight fires on board — galley, lavatory, lithium battery — using extinguishers and a smoke hood.
- Initial trainingSafety & trainingThe four-to-eight-week course that turns a successful candidate into a licensed, type-qualified cabin crew member.