What airlines ask of cabin crew, and how differently they ask it

Two airlines can want the same thing and describe it so differently that a candidate would not recognise it as the same question.

Take height. Not one of the four largest US airlines, or Air Canada, publishes a height in inches or centimetres. Four of the five have turned the question into a functional test instead. Delta asks whether you can reach 76 inches up and 35 inches across at the same time, and explains why: that is what closing a standard Boeing 767 door takes. United asks for a 76 inch vertical and 43.5 inch horizontal reach, held together and measured "without shoes on". Southwest publishes no measurement at all, and asks instead whether you can fit "quickly through the overwing window exit" and into a jumpseat harness "without modification, including closure without a seatbelt extension". American answers its own question about height with two functions: you must be able to remove emergency equipment from the overhead bins without help, and have "adequate head clearance in the cabin". Air Canada publishes nothing on the subject.

Turkish Airlines publishes a table.

Where the physical requirements are explicit

Turkish Airlines sets a height range rather than a floor, and it differs by sex: 160 to 180cm for women, 170 to 190cm for men. It then publishes a separate document, linked from its cabin crew page, giving a permitted weight range for every centimetre within those ranges, in two columns headed KADIN and ERKEK, women and men.

A woman of 160cm is permitted 48 to 60kg. At 165cm the band is 51 to 65kg, and at 180cm, the top of the range, 60 to 80kg. A man of 170cm is permitted 54 to 75kg, at 175cm 57 to 80kg, and at 190cm 67 to 95kg. On every row of the table, the upper limit is the height in centimetres less 100 for women and less 95 for men.

Candidates are measured against it on the assessment day, at a stage the airline names in its own account of the process: the physical suitability check and height and weight measurement. Candidates who do not meet the criteria are told on the spot, and their process ends there.

Air India publishes the same idea as a formula. Cabin crew need "at least 155 cm for females and 170 cm for males", and a "BMI within 18–22 for females and 18–25 for males". The men's band is wider at the top by three points. A woman whose body mass index sits at 24, comfortably inside the men's range, does not meet Air India's published criteria.

Neither figure is buried. Turkish Airlines' table is a PDF one click from its cabin crew page. Air India's bands sit in the eligibility list on its cabin crew portal.

Appearance

Four of the nine spell out a rule on visible tattoos on the pages read for this piece. Delta keeps its appearance requirements in a hiring guide that could not be read in full. Among the four, what differs is how far the rule reaches and what counts.

American Airlines does not permit visible tattoos in uniform or in training, and is specific about how they may be covered: "a uniform item, makeup, approved jewelry or watches" are acceptable, while "bandages, see-through gauze, pantyhose or sleeve accessories may not be used". It permits one earring per ear lobe and no other visible piercing, and separately bans "decorative dental embellishments, including tooth gems, dental jewelry, grills".

United is the most permissive on placement and the most precise on size. Tattoos are barred on "the head, hands, fingers, or neck (including back of neck and on, in, or behind the ear)", and there they cannot be covered with makeup or bandages. On the arms, wrists, legs and feet, visible tattoos are allowed, provided none is larger than "a credit card / employee badge (3.5 inches long x 2.24 inches wide)" and none is "violent, obscene, sexual, racist or contain objectionable content". Anything larger has to be covered with standard uniform pieces.

Turkish Airlines goes considerably further, and not only on tattoos. Its rule bars, in the visible areas of the body, "tattoos, piercings, wounds, burns, blemishes, birthmarks and similar permanent marks". Birthmarks and burns sit in the same sentence as body art. The airline publishes a diagram showing which areas count: for everyone, the head, face, neck, forearms and hands, and for women the lower legs and feet as well. A removed tattoo passes only if the removal is complete and the skin has returned to its own colour before assessment begins.

It also publishes what happens after a false declaration. A candidate who, when asked, states they have no such marks and is then found to have them does not simply fail. In the airline's words, their process ends and they will not be able to apply to its later cabin crew advertisements. In effect, a permanent bar.

Air India lists "Clear complexion" as an eligibility criterion, alongside being well groomed with no visible tattoos in uniform.

Experience, and the difference between essential and preferred

This is where a candidate is most likely to be misled by a summary, because carriers that look identical in a table differ underneath.

United makes a year of customer service experience a hard minimum, listed among its requirements: "At least one year of customer service experience in the service industry". Retail, hospitality, food, teaching, aviation and social service are its examples.

Delta publishes a near-identical sentence, "1 or more years of experience in jobs with responsibilities similar to those of a flight attendant", under a heading that reads "what will give you a competitive edge (preferred qualifications)". Nothing about experience appears among Delta's minimum qualifications.

Nearly the same words, with the opposite status.

Air India removes the ambiguity entirely, in answer to its own question about candidates without customer service experience: "Experience in customer service industry is not mandatory." It rewards experience differently, by raising the maximum age from 27 to 35 for experienced crew.

Southwest and Air Canada publish no experience requirement of any kind, essential or preferred. In Southwest's case that is a genuine absence rather than a page nobody opened: its minimum qualifications are published permanently, independent of any open vacancy, and contain no experience line.

Age

The spread is wider than expected, and it runs in both directions.

Air Canada sets 18. Southwest sets 20, a year below the 21 that Delta and United require. American's current recruitment pages state no minimum age. Air India sets 18 as a floor and, unusually, publishes ceilings: 27 for candidates without experience and 35 for those with it.

Turkish Airlines publishes no age on its permanent pages. It states that age is one of the criteria set in each individual advertisement, alongside education, military service status and height, so a candidate learns it only when a vacancy opens.

What the job pays, and who says

Four of the five carriers in the Americas publish pay. None of the carriers further east does.

United publishes a starting rate of 38.21 US dollars per flight hour, rising to a top of scale of 100.13 by 2030, plus a training stipend of 140 dollars a week and a 1,000 dollar bonus on graduating. American publishes 37.91 dollars per flight hour for its next trainees, an estimated 34,119 dollars a year for a new flight attendant based on a guaranteed 75 flight hours a month, and a per diem of 2.95 dollars an hour on domestic trips and 3.50 on international ones. Southwest pays by trip rather than by hour, at 32.62 dollars per trip, where a trip is "243 nautical miles or approximately every 55 minutes of flight time", and publishes an estimated first year of 38,000 dollars. Air Canada publishes 34.63 an hour for a certified flight attendant, with a minimum of 65 hours a month.

Delta, alone among them, publishes no figure. Its posting offers a "competitive salary" and invites candidates to read about its "pay philosophy and pay rates" through a link to its equal opportunity page, which says the full pay scales are published on Delta's internal intranet.

Turkish Airlines states plainly that pay is explained during recruitment rather than published. Air India offers an "attractive compensation package" and no number.

Training, and who pays for it

Two of the five carriers in the Americas state that their training is unpaid.

American: "No, training is not paid." It provides flights to and from Dallas Fort Worth, a hotel, transport to the training centre and three meals a day for seven weeks, but no wage. Southwest is the same, with a sweetener: "training is unpaid; however, Flight Attendant trainees who graduate receive a $1,200 Initial Training stipend".

United pays a stipend during its six and a half weeks. Delta pays an unspecified "training wage" for seven. Air Canada pays "a lower rate" during eight weeks and does not say what the rate is.

American also charges new hires for their first uniform and luggage, deducted from pay in instalments, and does not cover the cost of moving to the base it assigns. United says the opposite on the first point, offering "free uniforms, luggage", and the same on the second.

Turkish Airlines pays and insures its trainees during roughly two months of training, and provides meals and transport, but trainees find and fund their own accommodation for the duration. They also pay their own travel and accommodation for the assessment days.

Language

Two of the nine require a language other than English as a condition rather than an advantage.

Turkish Airlines expects Turkish citizens applying for cabin crew to speak Turkish fluently, and extends the same condition to Blue Card holders. Air India requires "excellent communication skills in Hindi and English".

The carriers in the Americas treat other languages as an advantage or a specialism instead. Delta runs a Language of Destination programme covering Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Tagalog and Swedish, with a language assessment during hiring and a two year commitment to the programme if hired through it. United lists a comparable set as "an asset" and pays "additional compensation for language skills". Air Canada prefers candidates fluent in both English and French, gives preference to those proficient in French, Greek, Japanese and Mandarin, and stops short of requiring even French.

Swimming

Two of the nine publish a water requirement, and both are American.

United: "Flight attendant trainees must successfully complete an evacuation drill in the water (pool) during training." Southwest: "Must be able to perform an emergency water evacuation that requires you to jump into water with a life vest and climb into raft."

Delta names ditching among the duties without setting a swim requirement. None of the pages read for the other six sets one.

Where you would be based

None of them lets you choose.

American assigns your base in the third week of training, based on class seniority, availability and operational need, and warns that Los Angeles and Phoenix "are not typically available for initial assignments". Delta requires willingness to accept any base, and holds language programme crew at their assigned base for at least two years. United assigns a base during training, at one of its seven hubs or another base, with relocation funds not provided. Southwest assigns during training across thirteen bases, with later moves awarded by seniority under its collective agreement. Air Canada offers two, Vancouver and Toronto.

Turkish Airlines requires residence in Istanbul unless an advertisement says otherwise. Air India asks candidates to be willing to be based at any of its domestic hubs.

Who can apply at all

Air Canada requires a Canadian passport specifically, not merely the right to work in Canada, which is a harder condition than any of the US carriers impose. They accept any passport, alongside the right to work in the United States.

American, Delta and United also require the freedom to travel to every destination they serve, and each sets its own validity window: American wants the passport valid through the end of the year its next classes train, Delta for 30 months from the first day of training, and United for twelve months from application, with two consecutive blank pages. Southwest asks only for a valid, unexpired passport.

Air India requires Indian nationality and an Indian passport.

The airlines that publish nothing

Two of the carriers looked at publish no cabin crew requirements at all.

RwandAir publishes none. When we read it, its careers page listed pilot, engineering, finance, audit and security vacancies, and no cabin crew role. Apart from a graduate programme, its department tiles are not links, and a search of its own site for cabin crew turns up award news, travel advice and policies, with no vacancy among them.

Ethiopian Airlines publishes no cabin crew recruitment either. Its vacancy list, read in full across all five pages, carried no cabin crew, flight attendant or air hostess role; the only hostess and steward jobs on it were at a resort hotel. The only cabin crew route it links to is a diploma at Ethiopian Aviation University, part of the same group, which runs three months and ten days and describes itself as equipping students "to thrive as a Cabin Crew at any airline". It is a course rather than a job, and its price is not published.

An airline that publishes nothing has not necessarily got no requirements. Turkish Airlines shows how that works: its age and education criteria appear only in the advertisement for each intake.

A note on sourcing

Every statement comes from the airline's own careers site or live job posting, read on 25 September 2026. For the carriers in the Americas, that means:

• United's Flight Attendant posting FA2026-5.
• Delta's Flight Attendant posting 33793, and the equal opportunity page it links for pay.
• Air Canada's Flight Attendant posting 40058.
• Southwest's permanent Flight Attendants page.
• American's flight attendant recruitment site and its questions and answers.

For the others:

• Turkish Airlines' cabin crew page and its questions and answers, its height and weight table and its visible areas diagram.
• Air India's cabin crew portal.
• Ethiopian Airlines' vacancy list, all five pages, and the Ethiopian Aviation University course and fees pages.
• RwandAir's careers page and its site search.

Turkish Airlines publishes in Turkish only, and the translations are ours. Pay figures are as published, in the currency each airline states. Air Canada gives its rate with a bare dollar sign, and we have not added a currency it does not name.

Two documents could not be read in full, and nothing here claims an absence from them. One is Delta's Flight Attendant Hiring Process Guide, which holds its candidate appearance requirements. The other is Southwest's candidate FAQ. American's main jobs site still links an older FAQ with lower pay and shorter training figures. The figures here come from its current flight attendant site.

Requirements change when airlines reopen hiring, and the current wording is always on the airline's own page. Nothing here comes from coaching sites, jobs boards or recruitment agencies.