This October Baltic Aviation Academy, on behalf of Qatar Airways, held an admission for aircraft cabin crew. Participants were searched in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland. To the first round, on the 20-21th of October, Baltic Aviation Academy invited more than 300 participants. Selected 83 candidates met the Qatar Airways representatives in the second round on the 28th of October in Vilnius. The selected ones after the second round will be offered three year open-ended contract for the cabin crew positions based in Doha, State of Qatar in the three week period from now on.
The main required qualities of participants for the job were perfect English language skills, communication skills, presentable appearance and others. ‘Usually cabin crew trainings are pricey, that can be an issue for some. In this case the airline is aimed to pay for all the expenses for chosen participants, so it really was an amazing opportunity, what outlined most of the participants,’ said Ausra Garuckaite, Sales Manager at Baltic Aviation Academy.
The current job proposal got tremendous attention. In one week Baltic Aviation Academy received over 500 applications. Jurgita Baleviciene, the Quality Manager at Baltic Aviation Academy specifies that the main reason of such big number of participants is a wish to escape from routine. ‘Flight attendant’s job is attractive because of its dynamics. Every day is different. The most interest thing, that there were candidates who have a good job, and years of experience. And still they decided that they are too young for such routine and boredom. In a way it is some kind of wish of freedom,’ said J. Baleviciene. In addition to freedom, glamour and prestige also attracts to become a steward or stewardess. ‘I was looking for the international internship when I saw an ad for Qatar Airways. I always loved traveling and furthermore it is prestigious job at the world’s five star airlines,’ explains her choice Rasa Kulakauskaite who got in to the second round of the admission.
The image of free and glamorous flight attendant job is not a coincidence, but rather a historically developed image. From the very beginning this job was associated with mystery and glamour. In the first half of the twentieth century, the transportation by plane was still very fresh news, so in order to fly – either you have to be very rich, either work as a cabin crew member. The glamorous part of flight attendant job was built with a help of well know designers. The stewards and stewardesses were the main communicators of the airlines’ image, so a lot of work has been put in their appearance to move it from functional to fashionable. Such designers as Louis Vuitton and Goyard designed bags and suitcases. At the same time clothes of flight attendants were designed by Pier Cardin, Dior, Nina Ricci and other well known designers that made flight attendants the real trendsetters at those times.