It's probably something you've never considered, but as well as passing an exam on Safety Emergency Procedures and an intense training course, candidates have to fit a certain physical description in order to become cabin crew.
But it's not just no visible tattoos or minimal piercings that airlines look for, but rather something that flight attendants have no control over: their height.
According to The Sun, one of the requirements for making a cabin crew team is that they meet a "minimum height", have a certain "arm reach" and, on some occasions, do not exceed the "maximum height".
The publication notes that rules can be different for men and women, but the specifications for different airlines are as follows:
- British Airways: Height 5’2 – 6’1. Reach of 79ins
- EasyJet: Height 5’3 – 6’3
- Ryanair: Height 5’2 – 6’2
- Thomas Cook: Minimum height 5’2
- Monarch: Minimum height 5’2
- Thomson: Minimum height 5’2
- Emirates: Minimum height 5’2. Reach of 83ins
- Qatar: Reach of 83ins
- Virgin: Reach of 82.5ins
- Singapore Airlines: Minimum height 5’2 (women) and 5’5 (men)
The minimum height and arm reach restrictions are most likely so cabin crew can easily reach into overhead lockers, though Singapore Air outline that it's for safety reasons - explaining on their website that cabin crew must "Fulfil the minimum height requirement of at least 1.58m for females and 1.65m for males in order to carry out safety and emergency procedures onboard".
Dusty Baxter-Wright is an award-winning journalist and the Entertainment and Lifestyle Director at Cosmopolitan, having previously worked at Sugarscape. She was named one of PPA’s 30 Under 30 for her work covering pop culture, careers, interiors and travel, and oversees the site’s Entertainment and Lifestyle strategy across print, digital and video. As a journalist for the best part of a decade, she has interviewed everyone from Louis Theroux and Channing Tatum to Margot Robbie and Ncuti Gatwa, while she has also spoken on Times Radio and BBC Radio. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram here.
