An airline’s cabin crew represents its values and distinctive identity. The crew members are responsible for ensuring a safe, comfortable, and delightful flying experience for the passengers. From greeting the passengers to serving food and beverages and providing them with clear instructions and support during the flight, there are many duties the cabin crew performs.
The different roles of cabin crew include flight attendants, air hosts, air hostesses, air stewards, air stewardesses, and onboard chefs. In addition to the collective responsibility of creating a pleasant and memorable journey for airline customers, the cabin crew has individual duties as well.
Keep reading to get more insight into what a cabin crew does!
Getting Ready for Boarding
The cabin crew has to check if the aircraft is ready for boarding, they can point out to the cleaning staff if they see some litter. They have to ensure that the technical and catering teams have addressed any issues that they were asked to deal with. Once the aircraft is ready they start boarding the passengers.
Meeting, greeting and seating the passengers
The first and foremost duty of the flight attendants is to welcome the travellers onboard and give them a courteous gesture that they are the valuable guests/customers of an airline. The flight attendants check the boarding passes and make sure that all the passengers are rightly seated and follow the safety/distance rules if and as defined by an airline.
They also help them with storing the luggage in the right compartments and resolve any complaints and issues pertaining to seating.
Offering guidelines on emergency landing and flight turbulence
The flight attendants provide instructions and demonstrate using the emergency tool kit in case of an emergency landing and other unexpected situations. They also guide the passengers on using the vomit bags and the importance of keeping the seat belts fastened during takeoff, landing, and turbulence.
If there is any special safety rule like social distancing during and post-pandemic days, the flight attendants have to ascertain that all passengers are following it.
Providing first aid and medical assistance
The flight attendants have first aid kits to provide the passengers with painkillers and other basic emergency medical support. Many airlines in the UK have flight physicians so the flight attendants call them for help in situations where professional medical assistance is inevitable like if there is a heart patient or a pregnant woman in her last trimester onboard.
Serving meals and drinks
The flight attendants serve the drinks, meals, and snacks to the passengers onboard. Many airlines provide a menu or in most cases, the flight attendants tell about the meat, bread, and other choices the passengers can have and cater to them according to their preferences and liking.
Removing the meal trays from every seat and ensuring that everybody has food is also the duty of the flight attendants. Most business class passengers have the privilege to get their favourite food made by the inflight chefs.
Selling food and duty-free goods
The flight attendants sell eatables like chocolates, crisps, biscuits and duty-free perfumes, cigarettes, and commercial goods to passengers on flights. The airlines give sales targets and commissions to the flight attendants for selling these products.
Keeping the passengers calm and seated
The cabin crew is trained to keep the passengers calm and seated during an emergency and unexpected situation. They also deal with unpleasant scenarios like an argument or a fight and intervene to keep the environment peaceful. They come up with quick and agreeable solutions to problems that can cause the peace on aircraft to disrupt.
Answering the passengers’ questions
The passengers onboard an aircraft can have many questions regarding different topics. For instance, a passenger can ask how many hours are left for the journey or where is the airplane at the moment. The cabin crew has to provide satisfactory answers to the passengers without getting annoyed.
They need to be polite and helpful to the passengers at all times and not give any unpleasant gesture even if they are asked the same question many times.
Preparing for takeoff and landing
The flight attendants are instructed by the pilot to prepare the passengers for takeoff and landing. They check the seat belts and ensure that everyone is seated when the aircraft takes off and lands. They have to ensure the safety of the passengers and the crew members so that nobody gets injured while standing or not properly seated during the takeoff and landing.
Producing flight reports
The cabin crew is required to produce a detailed report after every flight. They have to provide essential information regarding the different aspects of customer service, safety, catering, and other areas. Usually, the senior flight attendant is entrusted with the task of preparing and completing the fight report.
Taking criticism and suggestions positively
For many passengers, the flight may not be pleasant and they might take the liberty to voice their opinion about an airline’s staff, especially the cabin crew online or in comment cards. The flight attendants and other crew members should take the suggestions and criticism positively and try their best to improve the highlighted discrepancies in customer service.
A positive attitude is important for an airline’s cabin crew to make it excel.
Promoting and maintaining a unique image of an airline
The cabin crew has to promote and maintain a unique image of the airline they are a part of. They have to manifest the values and mission of the airline through their demeanor, communication, and the customer service they provide to the passengers.
The cabin crew needs to be well-trained, diplomatic, and customer-oriented in order to carry out the above-mentioned duties efficiently. Airlines with flight attendants and other cabin crew members who have great interpersonal and people skills are preferred over the ones that don’t have a courteous crew.
In addition to the physical appearance requirements that include height, weight, fitness and a nice/attractive personality, the qualities like empathy and understanding/respecting passengers from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds are the aspects that make a cabin crew better at their job.
