Best degree programs for Flight Attendants, ranked by enrollment
1 college programs and 4 schools train Flight Attendants. Compare graduates per year, cost and pay, $63,580 median wage, 131,650 U.S. jobs. Federal data.
1 college programs at 4 schools train flight attendants, graduating 70 people a year (IPEDS completions). The largest is Airline Flight Attendant. The job pays a median of $63,580 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About flight attendants
Monitor safety of the aircraft cabin. Provide services to airline passengers, explain safety information, serve food and beverages, and respond to emergency incidents.
A flight attendant is a member of the aircrew whose primary responsibility is to ensure the safety of passengers in the cabin of an aircraft across all stages of flight. Their secondary duty is to see to the comfort of passengers. Flight attendants are also known as a steward or stewardess, or air host or air hostess and are collectively referred to as cabin crew.
Read more on Wikipedia →Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
1 degree programs that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 49.0106 | 70 | 100.0% | 4 | $41,774 | $23,500 |
Top 4 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
| # | School | Graduates / yr | Top feeder program | Grad rate | Net price | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cypress College Cypress, CA Public · 1 feeder programs | 30 | Airline Flight Attendant | 37% | — | — |
| 2 | Sinclair Community College Dayton, OH Public · 1 feeder programs | 19 | Airline Flight Attendant | 41% | — | — |
| 3 | Glendale Community College Glendale, CA Public · 1 feeder programs | 12 | Airline Flight Attendant | 37% | — | — |
| 4 | Orange Coast College Costa Mesa, CA Public · 1 feeder programs | 9 | Airline Flight Attendant | 48% | — | — |
What flight attendants earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Top-paying states
Top-paying metro areas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Where the jobs are, state by state
Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.
| State | Median pay | Jobs | Concentration | Schools | Graduates / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Californiamoderate | $82,170 | 15,840 | 1.03× | 3 | 51 |
| Ohiolimited | $62,440 | 990 | 0.21× | 1 | 19 |
Skills and tools
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- 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.
- Monitor passenger behavior to identify threats to the safety of the crew and other passengers.
- Walk aisles of planes to verify that passengers have complied with federal regulations prior to takeoffs and landings.
- Direct and assist passengers in emergency procedures, such as evacuating a plane following an emergency landing.
- Prepare passengers and aircraft for landing, following procedures.
- Administer first aid to passengers in distress.
- Determine special assistance needs of passengers, such as small children, the elderly, or persons with disabilities.
Skills
- Speaking4.1
- Monitoring3.9
- Active Listening3.9
- Active Learning3.1
- Critical Thinking3.1
- Reading Comprehension3.1
- Writing3.0
- Learning Strategies2.8
Knowledge areas
- Customer and Personal Service4.5
- Public Safety and Security4.5
- English Language4.5
- Transportation3.5
- Psychology3.3
- Geography3.3
Abilities
- Speech Clarity4.0
- Oral Expression4.0
- Oral Comprehension3.9
- Speech Recognition3.9
- Near Vision3.8
- Problem Sensitivity3.8
Core activities
- Performing for or Working Directly with the Public4.8
- Getting Information4.3
- Making Decisions and Solving Problems4.3
- Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events4.1
- Assisting and Caring for Others4.1
- Resolving Conflicts and Negotiating with Others4.0
Tools and technology
hotmarks an O*NET hot technologyHow to get in
How to become a Flight Attendant
Job zone 2 of 5 · SVP Below 6.0- Typical entry education
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Work experience needed
- Less than 5 years
- On-the-job training
- Moderate-term on-the-job training
Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.
Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 1 majors mapped to Flight Attendants1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 49.0106Airline Flight Attendant
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become a Flight Attendant?+
High school diploma or equivalent is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Airline Flight Attendant, which awarded 70 degrees in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Flight Attendant?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Air Transportation. Together they graduate about 70 people a year.
How much do flight attendants earn?+
The median is $63,580 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $35,110 at the 10th percentile to $136,430 at the 90th. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for flight attendants growing?+
BLS projects a +9.2% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, much faster than average, with roughly 19,800 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
4 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do flight attendants work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Purser, Flight Attendant, In-Flight Crew Member, International Flight Attendant among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 53-2031.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024-25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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