I’ve always kind of wanted to be a flight attendant, but just for a hot minute. Not for 46 years, as seems to be the norm in the US. There is something that seems kind of fun about doing the hand motions pointing out where the exits are, having the power to kick people off planes (just kidding), etc.!
Well, for anyone in a similar situation, Air New Zealand is doing something pretty awesome. Air New Zealand is hiring temporary flight attendants to join their wide body fleet over the southern summer period.
Air New Zealand is expecting a record number of travelers this busy season, so they’re hiring some temporary staff. You can apply through July 28, and successful applicants will be offered four to six month temporary contracts.
Usually flight attendant training can take 1-2 months, though Air New Zealand notes that temporary applicants will undergo a “condensed and intensive regulatory training course at the Air New Zealand Academy of Learning in Auckland,” before taking to the skies in October.
Those selected for this contract will be paid a pro rated salary of up to 60,000NZD (~41,000USD) per year. That’s a base salary of 40,000NZD, plus away from home travel allowances.
Per the job listing, applicants have to be at least 18 years old, and must be a permanent resident or citizen of Australia or New Zealand. They also note that you should be prepared to work over holidays, and that language skills are preferred, especially for those fluent in Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, Korean, and NZ Sign Language.
Air New Zealand’s General Manager of Cabin Crew, Leeanne Langridge, says she’s looking for applicants who are resilient, have high learning agility and a natural passion for people:
“Our flight attendants have set the benchmark high. They love putting on the uniform every day and enjoy the challenge of working in a dynamic industry. While being a flight attendant can be incredibly fun, it’s a demanding role that will push you to perform at your best. You need to be able to cope well under pressure and enjoy the fact that no two days are the same.
Many people tell me that they’ve thought about being a flight attendant at some stage in their lives, so this is a great chance for those people to give it a go.”
This is a really cool opportunity for anyone who has wanted to be a flight attendant. There aren’t many opportunities to just try your hand at it, and if I lived Down Under I might just apply and try to take the job for science (okay, I don’t think anyone in my life — especially Winston — would approve of that, but…).
Sometimes when you start at an airline (at least in the US) you’re on reserve for years on end, and don’t get to bid on many fun trips. Here you’re starting off on wide bodies flying long routes, so that’s cool.
I’m still fascinated by the logistics of this, though. Just how condensed will the training be? It’s my understanding that with flight attendant training the safety aspect of it alone usually takes several weeks. So I do wonder just how they’ll be condensing the information into such a short period.
It seems to me like there’s a huge learning curve when it comes to providing efficient inflight service, given the challenging logistics. I’ll be curious to see if this experiment is successful, or if it proves to be more trouble than its worth.
Anyone else sort of intrigued by the concept of being a temporary flight attendant?
Star of the hit series Suits, Rick Hoffman is one of the stars of Air New Zealand's latest safety video, which has just been released.
The new video is the latest in a long series of safety videos that usually hit the headlines, but sometimes for the wrong reasons. The airline's last video was pulled after negative feedback. The airline front footed the negative feedback by releasing a mock job advertisement for a new head of safety videos.
In an emergency they can take a few hours to brush up on safety
Normal training one or two months. Air NZ has lowered the bar, in that case. Several decades ago, two friends did their then very strict course. One got bumped after six weeks for failing a critical test; the other went on to a happy career. I think it was more like three months training then.
They fly to some great places so this will be a fun temp gig for the few that land the jobs.
I’m sure that most of the “training” would be focused on Emergency procedures and their service training would probably be minimal and learnt online by existing Flight Attendants- they are a great airline - good luck to them all
I would love to take this oppprtunity but my current salary is about 2.5x this so I will pass it up.
@Austin
Spanish Language is used in Argentina and Air NZ flies to ARG...
Actually, Jared we do have strong unions in aviation, and this is a concern.
I am sorry to come up with disappointing news but nowadays FA rarely do the manual demo or pointing fingers as you day ( unless flying on the rubbish US airlines old planes ) as IFE is available in most plan and FA can not offload passengers of a flight. This is a captain choice only.
Austin.. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world just after Chinese Mandarin and English in third place just because is the language that most people chose as second language.
Standard in Europe, especially the UK.
It's almost 25 years since I did a summer temp contract along with 40 odd others at Monarch Airlines at LTN before that ended I got permanent at EZY.
@Juanita, In NZ we don't have unions like the USA (thank god), so no, its not an issue
Nothing really new here: Air France hires students as seasonal flight attendants every summer for more than a decade...!
Sometime around September they advertise the position on their website (with a quite short window for application), then the preselected students (one must be currently studying in order to apply) go to an assessment centre where their level of English is assessed (for those who don’t hold any relevant certificate), their ability to work in team...
Nothing really new here: Air France hires students as seasonal flight attendants every summer for more than a decade...!
Sometime around September they advertise the position on their website (with a quite short window for application), then the preselected students (one must be currently studying in order to apply) go to an assessment centre where their level of English is assessed (for those who don’t hold any relevant certificate), their ability to work in team (with a calibrated group exercice) as well as a more classical interview.
The following spring the successful candidates receive a week of training (5 days of “commercial training” and one day on regulations & safety), as well as a quite invasive and compulsory medical visit on a military site. Any concern raised at this stage, relative to the physical, emotional, or behavioural abilities of the candidate leads to disqualification. It does happen every year (albeit only for a few people) so we can really say it’s part of the selection process.
A couple of weeks before summer, the plannings with scheduled rotations are sent over. They do about 1,5 roundtrips a week or an average of 70 hours per month, as it is the standard of the industry in France.
No prior training is required not even the will to make a career in the airline industry. To be fair, it’s just a good way for Air France to escape French unfriendly labour laws the time of a summer, as the students are hired on a very particular contractual arrangement designed specifically for that purpose (with the consent of the Government).
Source: I’ve done it ;)
As loop86 points out, nothing new in Europe. SWISS employs temporary crew members which only work a couple of days a month and I hear it‘s a popular option amoung mothers and students, in fact SWISS‘ official instagrammer of the month June explained how it works on the official page.
https://www.thelocal.de/20160216/german-scientists-find-dangerous-gas-in-plane-cabins
Interesting that Spanish makes the cut for languages preferred.
I think Ben has to do it. It would be fantastic series of trips.
Nothing really new. I did it with Air France during summers 1969, 70 and 71. Boeing 707s. First moon walk was during a Paris - New York, flying over Newfoundland. Probably the biggest champagne consumption ever on a B 707 (free, at the time Y booze was paying as per IATA rules).
@Joey, training was 2 weeks during spring break, I was in college in France at the time, plus 1 week at the beginning of each summer period. About 12 hours/day and nobody complained.
Do it, Ben! Or have Ford do it.
Would be hilarious if several bloggers like you, Sam Chui, TPG, etc. all did it.
Well nothing new in Europe. Austrian Airlines for example offers a cool combination for students to fly during their breaks (6 months) and pay them throughout the whole year. Can't imagine a better student job, if you compare it to the usual jobs.
So wish they could also give opportunities to South Africans who are interested in Flight Attending, we live in areas where dreams are limited and unemployed rated be so high.
I wonder how the flight attendant union is reacting to this. Allowing temporary workers may sabotage the bargaining power of the union to negotiate compensation and work rules. I suspect the rank and file membership is totally against this move by the company.
Wonder how the flight attendant union is reacting to this. By allowing temporary workers you risk sabotaging the bargaining power of the union to negotiate the membership’s compensation and work rules.
I'm curious as well in regards to the training. Since they are temporary, I'd imagine they'd be assigned in economy and do basic things. I highly doubt they'd assign them to premium cabins but who knows!
This reminds me of interns we have this summer. Since they are temporary and training is so short, we normally assign them grunt work none of us want to do. lmao.
While it may be fun, I wonder how many of these new temps will quit after having to cater to those “picky travel bloggers”
;)