At What Age Do Flight Attendants Retire? – Celebrity
A good thing in America is that there is no maximum hiring age for flight attendants or a published age of retirement. It is expected that, while staff can carry out their duties safely, they are able to keep on working.
In contrast, Hong Kong-based airlines including Hong Kong Airlines, Hong Kong Express Airways and Cathay Dragon allow their flights to retire at the remarkedly young age of just 45 years old. That’s nothing in comparison with Bette Nash, who was until this year the world’s oldest flight attendant at 80 years old.
The Flight Attendants on American airlines appear to be, on average, a bit older than those throughout the rest of the world. The CEO of Qatar Airways certainly seems to agree, boasting in 2017 that the average age of his cabin crew was only 27, compared to American ‘grandmother’ flight attendants.
And interestingly, the vast majority of Cathay cabin crew want to increase the retirement age from the current 55 to 60 years old. Admittedly, there is a very good reason why the Cathay flight attendants might want to work longer in life – as a desperate bid to keep the loss-making airline afloat.
How old do you have to be to be a flight attendant?
Is there a minimum age limit for becoming flight attendant? For most airlines in the world, you have to be minimum of 18 years or 21 years old, depending on the airline and the country. This is quite normal and not peculiar to the aviation industry, most industries have a minimum age requirement.
Economical reasons/affordability: Young employees will stay longer in the company, and because of the high cost of recruiting, training and visa, license, etc.
In many cases, the Asian ones prefer candidates no older than 30 years old, but of course, this varies between airlines. So they do discriminate, and yes, you can be too old to start a career in some airlines from this part of the world. Having said that, people at the age of 35 and older do get hired, but it isn’t the standard and it isn’t …
As there is no maximum age requirement in place in U.S. airlines, we’ll just show you the minimum allowable age for U.S. airlines, which varies between 20 or 21. Delta Airlines: above 21. Jetblue: above 20. United: above 21.
Airlines want someone to represent their business, and they prefer candidates that are younger looking, younger in actual age, fit, and youthful enough to be able to focus on their career. So the bottom line is that airlines prefer younger candidates.
Age discrimination against flight attendants does exist, even though it’s not always visible and certainly not made public. Companies tend to think that professionals passed a certain age are stuck in their ways, less capable, less able to adapt, but this is totally not true.
This is another question that is not easy to answer. For example, in the US there is no maximum age to apply. It is illegal to discriminate and airlines want to comply with stated equal employment opportunity responsibilities.
How old do flight attendants have to be to retire?
Flight attendant’s at Singapore Airways have to wait until 62 before they can retire. In contrast, Hong Kong-based airlines including Hong Kong Airlines, Hong Kong Express Airways and Cathay Dragon allow their flights to retire at the remarkedly young age of just 45 years old.
That’s nothing in comparison with Bette Nash, who was until this year the world’s oldest flight attendant at 80 years old. Bette first started working for the long-defunct airline, Eastern Airlines in 1957 – aged just 21 years old at the time.
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Ouch – simultaneously jibing older flight attendants and claiming his airline didn’t hire mature staff. The comments caused a big furore and Baker was forced to back down, offering an unreserved apology to anyone he may have offended.
