How much does a flight attendant get paid – Salary and Lifestyle

written by the staff at Beyond & Above Corporate Flight Attendant Training in Fort Lauderdale

We often receive the question about flight attendant salary and how much a flight attendant gets paid.

The answer can only be answered until you decide which type of flight attendant you are choosing to become.

Flight attendants get paid differently based upon if they are corporate/private flight attendants or if they are commerical airline attendants. Then breaking down the flight attendant salary question depends on what type of flying you are doing if you are in the private and corporate flight attendant world.

1. Airlines pay flight attendants usually on salary positions. Full time. Now starting as low as $20,000 a year. (20k, really!). 

Yes really flight attendant’s salaries have only gone down in recent times.

*Of course this depends on the carrier as some actually pay flight attendants pretty well.

2. Corporate flight attendants on private jets get paid a lot more money!

This is a reality.

Contract corporate flight attendant pay is around $350 – $700 a day depending on your extra skills and the client.  Yes this is a reality. We have many students who graduate and report back about making a lot of money.  Also don’t forget the corporate flight attendant per diem. Which is around $100 a day for food and extras.

Full time flight attendant salary is split in two categories when it comes to private aircraft:

  1. Working for a charter company
  2. Working for a private client

*Flight attendant salary and pay for working full-time at a charter company is a little different, as well as the work. (see our other article on charter and private flight attendants.)

Salary for a flight attendant for a charter company that does average flying:

A regular charter company will fly you when someone rents (charters) one of the aircraft in there fleet and when the owner of the aircraft wants to fly.  The pay for this type of flight attendant can range from $30,000 to $80,000 depending on the company on your experience.  Overseas contracts can be a little different which we  explain in another article.

Working for a private client only can be very lucrative pay for a flight attendant. We had a recent report that a family loved a flight attendant so much that they gave him a salary of $86,000 a year just so that he would not fly for anyone else. *note the wording. he – a male flight attendant! Also another great thing about this man’s job was that he only flew 1 month a year for there December vacation! This of course is a great scenario, but it is possible in the private jet world.

+A full time flight attendant salary for a private family can range from $40,000 to $125,000 (Really! Just imagine what billionaire you will be flying if they don’t have to rent/charter their jet to cover costs! )

A simple answer to the question –

How much does a flight attendant get paid?

It depends, read this article! 🙂