The allure of a flight attendant career blends travel, service, and a unique lifestyle, but how much do these sky-high professionals earn in 2025? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports a median annual salary of $70,980 for flight attendants in 2023, with top earners exceeding $97,170. Employment is projected to grow 11.4% from 2022 to 2032, adding 13,400 jobs, per BLS data.
Major airlines like American offer starting hourly rates of $36, reaching $82 for veterans, according to Business Insider’s 2025 analysis. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA notes 120,000 U.S. flight attendants in 2019, with pay varying by seniority and hours flown. Delta’s 2024 scale, cited by Aviation A2Z, shows new hires at $35 per hour, peaking at $80.
This article dives into flight attendant salaries, grounded in stats from BLS, industry reports, and airline data. Beyond base pay, benefits like health insurance and travel perks enhance the compensation picture.
Who is a Flight Attendant?
Flight attendants also known as flight stewards are the members of the flight personnel that passengers mostly interact with. They see to it that passengers are pleased, and they are always ready to respond to security issues that may occur during the flight.
Flight stewards work for private and commercial airlines to ensure passengers’ safety and comfortability. They help passengers find their seats, illustrate how to utilize the plane’s safety materials. They also deliver food, drinks, and other services to needy passengers. By law, all airlines must have flight attendants on the crew to guarantee passengers’ safety.
How to Become a Flight Attendant
To be a flight steward or attendant, the path is moderately simple and includes the following steps:
- Obtain a high school diploma: The least education prerequisite for flight attendants is a high school diploma.
- Get a degree: Though most airlines will employ flight attendants without degrees, an associate or bachelor’s degree in hospitality and human relation related fields can make you more outstanding.
- Develop customer service skills: Take a job at a hospitality or service job to improve your customer relation skills. The knowledge will put you in a better stance when applying for flight stewards jobs. You might work at a restaurant or a hotel.
- Apply for a job: If you are 18 years and above and have fair health and vision, you can apply for flight attendant positions with various airlines.
- Undergo Training: if an airline engages you, you will spend several weeks in training. Training classes include safety, first aid, reacting to challenging flight or passenger situations, evacuation, putting out fires, survival techniques, self-defense and personal health, among others
- Get certified: After training, you must pass the FAA’s exam to be certified and legally authorized to work as a flight steward.
- Attain reserve status: New flight attendants begin on reserve status. During this duration, you will be on standby to fill in for other flight attendants or supplements. This period typically lasts one year
- Grow in your career: After gaining years of experience as a flight steward, you will possibly have the privilege of choosing your base, routes and schedule. You might also coach, recruit, instruct or supervise other flight attendants and help with undertakings such as scheduling.
Requirements To Be A Flight Attendant
In addition to training and education, there are a few other requirements to keep in mind when it comes to being a flight attendant. They are
- Height: Some airlines have conditions related to height. This is to make sure all flight stewards are sufficiently tall enough to help passengers with overhead compartments.
- Medical Screening: Airlines hope to try and avoid having flight attendants battling medical issues during flights. So there will be a medical examination as part of the employment process.
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Listing of Flight Attendant Schools
Below is a shortlist of some of the flight schools presently accepting students.
Flight Attendant School Cost
Flight attendant schools offer different courses that can take as short as a few days and as long as 16 weeks. The depth of the topics to be taught can vary. Thus, putting in more time implies you’ll be able to know more.
Although flight attendant school is not compulsory, it will be very useful to someone joining the aviation industry for the first time without having some of these skills.
As of 2019, the average cost of flight attendant school programs is $3,500 to $5,000. However, Flight attendant schools can cost as little as $1,000 and as much as $25,000 depending on the duration and what is content. Some will even propose that you pay room and board since you’ll be residing near the school as you train.
Duties Of A Flight Attendant
Primarily, all airlines have flight attendants onboard to ensure passengers’ safety. Other flight attendant responsibilities include:
- Going to preflight briefings with the pilots to obtain flight details for each journey.
- Examining emergency equipment before each flight takes off.
- Ensuring the plane’s cabin is tidy and well-stocked with food and drinks
- Ensuring all passengers are readied for takeoff and landing.
- Assisting passengers with personal needs, little children or requiring medical services.
- Managing disruptive passengers and monitoring the plane for skeptical behavior.
- In case of an emergency, assisting passengers locate and employ safety equipment, putting out fires outbreaks and supervising evacuations.
- Reporting any safety or medical problems that occurred on a flight
Flight Attendant Jobs
Below is a list of the best 20 flight steward jobs
- #1. Flight Attendant at Frontier Airlines, Inc – Denver, CO
- #2. Flight Attendant at Republic Airways – Indianapolis
- #3. Flight Attendant at Landry’s Corporate – Houston
- #4. Breeze Airways Flight Attendant – Full-Time at Breeze Airways™ – Cottonwood Heights, UT
- #5. Flight Attendant at Amentum – Las Vegas, NV
- #6. Flight Attendant at SkyWest Airlines – Salt Lake City, UT
- #7. Flight Attendant G-450 at Executive Jet Management – Austin, TX
- #8. Flight Attendant at Spectrum – White Plains, NY
- #9. Flight Attendant at GMJ Air Shuttle – Mesa, AZ
- #10. Breeze Airways Flight Attendant – Part-Time at Breeze Airways™ – Cottonwood Heights, UT
- #11. Corporate Flight Attendant: Homebased flyExclusive – Greeneville, TN
- #12. Flight Attendant – Korean Language Qualified at Hawaiian Airlines – Honolulu, HI
- #13. Flight attendant at Air Wisconsin Airlines – Chicago, IL
- #14. Flight Attendant STL at GoJet Airlines LLC. – St. Louis, MO
- #15. Flight Attendant EWR at GoJet Airlines LLC. – Newark, NJ
- #16. Flight Attendant ORD at GoJet Airlines LLC. – Chicago, IL
- #17. Manager, Flight Attendant Mobile Technology at Hawaiian Airlines – Honolulu, HI
- #18. Flight Attendant at PSA Airlines – Vandalia, OH
- #19. Project Manager, In-Flight Service Programs at Delta – Atlanta, GA
- #20. Flight Attendant Trainee Hebrew and English Bilingual at American Airlines – Dallas, TX
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, flight attendant employment is expected to grow at least 17 percent from 2019 to 2029, which is much faster than the national average for all occupations.
Starting Salary For Flight Attendant
The average yearly pay for an Entry Level Flight Attendant is $44,081 a year. This is approximately $21.19 an hour and is equal to $848/week or $3,673/month.
While the salary of a flight attendant can be as high as $78,500 and as low as $18,000 annually. The majority of starting salaries of Flight Attendants currently range between $31,000 (25th percentile) to $46,000 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) earning $60,000 annually.
The average pay range varies greatly by as much as $15,000 which indicates there may be many chances for improvement and increased pay based on skill, setting, and years of experience.
Average Flight Attendant Salary
Unfortunately, there is no exact Flight attendant pay.
The average flight attendant’s salary can be between €20,001 and €45,001 ($22,001 to $49,000) in their first year.
The fact is, some people will make more than others, regardless of how you start working for an airline. But you can calculate your earnings per month depending on the number of flights you take.
Private Flight Attendant Salary
An average private flight attendant’s salary is expected to be about $47,000 per year while high-earning private flight attendants make a salary of about $78,000 yearly.
Flight Attendant Salary Hourly
Because by default, all airlines must employ flight attendants. There is always a need for qualified prospects. Flight attendants with years of experience and college degrees in airlines or human relations might be able to receive a higher hourly wage than others.
A typical average salary for a flight attendant in the U.S. is $25.61 per hour but some salaries range from $7.25 to $42.80 per hour.
How Much Does A Flight Attendant Make Per Year?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary of flight attendants is around $56,000 per year. Nevertheless, Flight attendants’ pay can vary, with the lowest 10% earning less than $28,000, and the highest 10% earning more than $80,000.
Aside from their salaries, flight stewards also receive a stipend to cover their meal and hotel expenses when traveling. Additional benefits for some positions might include free travel or upgrades.
Conclusion
As little as it may seem, a flight attendant’s pay is one of the most handsome paychecks for jobs without a degree. This job also comes with a few other benefits highlighted in this reading. Some job opportunities have also been listed with the salary structure for flight attendants, hourly, yearly, and on average.
FAQs On Flight Attendant Salary
How are flight attendants paid?
A flight attendant’s pay is calculated from the time the aircraft door closes until the time it is reopened (also called “block time”).
How hard is it to become a flight attendant?
The process can be time-consuming and challenging as competition is always fierce. There are nearly 1 million applications to fill 5,000 – 10,000 flight attendant jobs.
Is Flight Attendant School Required?
No, flight attendant school is not a requirement to become a flight attendant.
References
- collegegrad.com – flight attendants
- money.usnews.com – flight attendants best jobs
- work.chron.com – private flight attendant salary
- www.indeed.com – what does a flight attendant do
- www.simplyhired.com – flight attendant united states
- www.ziprecruiter.com – Entry Level Flight Attendant Salary
- thestreet.com – how much do flight attendants make
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