---
title: "Flight Attendant"
description: "Monitor safety of the aircraft cabin. Provide services to airline passengers, explain safety information, serve food and beverages, and respond to…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/flight-attendant"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Flight Attendant

**Category:** Transportation and Material Moving · **SOC code:** 53-2031 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 53-2031.00

Monitor safety of the aircraft cabin. Provide services to airline passengers, explain safety information, serve food and beverages, and respond to emergency incidents.

Also advertised as: Flight Attendant; In-Flight Crew Member; Inflight Services Flight Attendant; International Flight Attendant; Purser.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $63,580 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** Not published by BLS
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $35,110 to $136,430, with the middle half between $51,760 and $95,640
- **Total US employment:** 131,650
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +9.2% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 19,800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 54/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 131,650 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $35,110 |
| 25th | $51,760 |
| 50th (median) | $63,580 |
| 75th | $95,640 |
| 90th | $136,430 |
| Mean (average) | $77,440 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NY | $126,650 | $117,354 | 12,060 |
| UT | $82,730 | $83,681 | 2,490 |
| CA | $82,170 | $74,214 | 15,840 |
| GA | $78,320 | $81,335 | Not published by BLS |
| CT | $78,180 | $75,456 | 250 |
| WA | $74,090 | $69,235 | Not published by BLS |
| MI | $62,490 | $64,947 | Not published by BLS |
| OH | $62,440 | $67,303 | 990 |
| ID | $62,200 | $65,135 | Not published by BLS |
| IL | $62,120 | $62,146 | 9,350 |
| AZ | $61,780 | $61,365 | 4,590 |
| MA | $61,510 | $58,162 | 4,390 |
| OR | $61,480 | $59,481 | 980 |
| MN | $61,230 | $62,086 | 4,050 |
| CO | $59,500 | $57,738 | 7,110 |

4 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 19 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/flight-attendant/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/flight-attendant.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 130,800 in the 2024–2034 base year to 142,900 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 12,100 jobs, or +9.2%. Much faster than average: 9.2% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 19,800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 70.3% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 12.4% |
| Some College Courses | 10.4% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 3.5% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 2.7% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 0.8% |

## What the work involves

- Verify that first aid kits and other emergency equipment, including fire extinguishers and oxygen bottles, are in working order.
- Announce and demonstrate safety and emergency procedures, such as the use of oxygen masks, seat belts, and life jackets.
- Walk aisles of planes to verify that passengers have complied with federal regulations prior to takeoffs and landings.
- Prepare passengers and aircraft for landing, following procedures.
- Attend preflight briefings concerning weather, altitudes, routes, emergency procedures, crew coordination, lengths of flights, food and beverage services offered, and numbers of passengers.
- Reassure passengers when situations, such as turbulence, are encountered.
- Check to ensure that food, beverages, blankets, reading material, emergency equipment, and other supplies are aboard and are in adequate supply.
- Greet passengers boarding aircraft and direct them to assigned seats.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Geography — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Social (S), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 4.41 |
| S — Social | 4.19 |
| R — Realistic | 4.04 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.63 |
| I — Investigative | 2.04 |
| A — Artistic | 1.27 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 84.1 |
| ESTJ | 81.8 |
| ISFJ | 79.8 |
| ISTJ | 69.0 |
| ESFP | 61.3 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ, ESTJ, ISFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Passenger Attendant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/passenger-attendant) — median $37,720
- [Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agent and Travel Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/reservation-and-transportation-ticket-agent-and-travel-clerk) — median $44,390
- [First-Line Supervisor of Passenger Attendants](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-passenger-attendants) — median $62,840
- [Airfield Operations Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/airfield-operations-specialist) — median $56,850
- [Baggage Porter and Bellhop](https://nuecareer.com/careers/baggage-porter-and-bellhop) — median $37,080
- [Transportation Security Screener](https://nuecareer.com/careers/transportation-security-screener) — median $66,770
- [Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-cargo-handling-supervisor) — median $58,170
- [Air Traffic Controller](https://nuecareer.com/careers/air-traffic-controller) — median $148,080
- [Usher, Lobby Attendant, and Ticket Taker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/usher-lobby-attendant-and-ticket-taker) — median $32,910
- [Locker Room, Coatroom, and Dressing Room Attendant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/locker-room-coatroom-and-dressing-room-attendant) — median $36,300

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/flight-attendant