Who wants to be a flight attendant? A lot of us

Apparently a lot of people want to be flight attendants.

Southwest Airlines recently received 10,000 applications in two hours for 750 spots, BusinessWeek.com reports. A year ago, Southwest attracted 114,000 applicants for some 2,500 flight attendant positions. US Airways and Delta report similarly large pools of job applicants.

In the job market the way it is right now, who wouldn’t want to get paid to travel? says Leslie Mayo, a 27-year flight attendant at American Airlines, who lives in San Diego. The schedule is flexible, and a day off is a day off — you don’t take your job home with you, she says, preparing for a trip to Zurich the next day.

Airline employees do get to fly for free but usually only in unsold seats. BusinessWeek says a veteran flight attendant can make more than $50,000 a year. Starting pay is about $25,000 a year.

Photo: Getty Images via BusinessWeek.com

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