Contained in the grueling 14-week flight attendant coaching at one of many world’s top-ranked airways
Whereas I is perhaps one in every of TPG’s lodge reporters, I nonetheless contemplate myself an AvGeek with an appreciation for the flight service of yesteryear — even when I did come of age at a time when baggage of mini pretzels had been thought of an inflight luxurious.
Chateaubriand sliced seatside aboard Pan Am top notch, TWA napkins positioned so the emblem was all the time going through up on the passenger: These are the issues I assumed belonged to air journey days passed by.
It actually seems that means anytime you board a flight from Boston to New York Metropolis, and there is not sufficient time to cross out even a cup of water — even in top notch.
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However after a number of days on the opposite aspect of the world on the Singapore Airways Coaching Heart in addition to a close-by catering facility at Singapore Changi Airport (SIN), I am comfortable to report the golden age of journey is alive and nicely. Nevertheless, it takes a number of coaching and prep work to verify this airline, seen as one of many world’s greatest, lives as much as its lofty repute.
What it takes to be a Singapore Airways flight attendant
There have been 133 graduating lessons of 20-person flight attendant coaching teams in 2023 at Singapore Airways — probably the most of any 12 months in firm historical past. The rigorous 14-week coaching — one of many longest within the trade — combines communications expertise, product data and security coaching.
By comparability, coaching at U.S. airways takes about half the time. It focuses totally on security and fewer on the intricacies of inflight service
What to know: Final information to the brand new Singapore Suites
Aspiring Singapore Airways flight attendants begin with 5 weeks of coaching targeted on service and product data. Every coaching batch begins with communication and interpersonal expertise. That is evident within the quite a few “Good morning!” and “Hiya!” greetings I obtained from smiling flight attendants-to-be within the hallways of the coaching heart.
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CAMERON SPERANCE/THE POINTS GUY
On my 18-hour flights to and from Singapore, the strong communication expertise coaching was clear from each flight attendant working the business-class cabin; all of them greeted me by title and offered constantly pleasant banter over the span of the world’s longest flight. Trainees are assessed on these expertise in the beginning of their path to working at 38,000 ft within the sky.
Whereas a few of us is perhaps exhausted by the considered mile-high small speak on only a 45-minute flight to Washington, D.C., there is a cause why Singapore Airways flight attendants can hold the dialog going for greater than 18 hours. Till the communication expertise are perfected, trainees cannot transfer on to the following stage of coaching.
For those who’re considering of making use of for a job right here, it is perhaps a good suggestion to brush up on Dale Carnegie’s “The Artwork of Public Talking” to ensure you’re prepared for what’s to return.
From there, trainees work inside varied mock-ups of every sort of aircraft within the Singapore Airways fleet. This entails every thing from figuring out how you can are likely to the service and make the mattress in Singapore Suites aboard an Airbus A380 to working meal service in financial system aboard a mock-up of an Airbus A350.
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CAMERON SPERANCE/THE POINTS GUY
All lessons of service — every thing from first-class suites to long-haul and regional enterprise class to financial system class — are constructed out on these mock-up plane. To study the ins and outs of working premium cabins, a Singapore Airways flight attendant should work financial system class for a 12 months earlier than coaching on the business-class product. Nabbing a first-class flight attendant gig depends on getting a promotion from the business-class service, trainers advised me throughout the tour.
In the course of the service and product data coaching a part of the method, trainees are additionally studying the correct approach to choose one thing up from the ground in a cabin (by crouching to the ground slightly than simply bending over and grabbing it) and how you can stroll down a flight of stairs aboard the A380. In addition they pattern meals, to allow them to provide recommendation on every thing from wine pairings with caviar to favored entrees and dessert.
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CAMERON SPERANCE/THE POINTS GUY
Security coaching at Singapore Airways
Following the five-week service and product data coaching, every batch of trainees strikes on to a month of security coaching.
All pilots and cabin crew at Singapore Airways and Scoot (a low-cost airline and subsidiary of Singapore Airways) make the most of the protection coaching facility. This group security coaching academy is the place these crew members go for regulatory coaching, particular coaching, and security and emergency procedures coaching.
Plane cabin mock-ups within the coaching facility allow cabin crew to undergo door coaching; they discover ways to open a door and deploy an emergency slide within the occasion of an emergency, whether or not it is a water touchdown or evacuation on land. The coaching facility has door coach cabin mock-ups for each plane sort, from Scoot’s upcoming Embraer 190-E2 fleet to the A380s utilized at Singapore Airways.
The focus of 1 coaching room was the emergency slide coaching for the Boeing 777 and the A380. Pilots and cabin crew should undergo emergency slide coaching and bounce down the slide to get familiarity with the process. Between 40 and 50 trainees go down the slides every day. Crew useful resource administration coaching allows pilots and cabin crew to familiarize themselves with how they might work collectively within the occasion of an emergency.
Throughout our tour, the cabin crew trainees underwent smoke rescue coaching and water evacuation coaching in a separate space with a pool to simulate a water touchdown that requires deploying life rafts.
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CAMERON SPERANCE/THE POINTS GUY
The ‘Singapore Lady’
In the course of the tour of the coaching services, Singapore Airways representatives emphasised the significance of well being and wellness for cabin crew. Whereas the decadent service can seem to be a throwback to U.S. vacationers, the airline’s physique mass index charts would possibly, too.
The airline has a most of twenty-two BMI for feminine cabin crew and 25 BMI for male cabin crew.
Feminine cabin crew — lengthy often called the “Singapore Lady” in advertising and marketing campaigns — put on a sarong kebaya. Male cabin crew put on tailor-made blue fits. Varied colours on the kebayas and go well with ties signify seniority, from blue for flight attendants to purple for inflight managers.
Whereas cabin crew are eligible for a brand new uniform yearly, representatives with the corporate famous the BMI charts are enforced. Weight loss program is necessary; whereas a 4- to 6-pound weight achieve is perhaps OK, a 20-pound achieve just isn’t acceptable, airline representatives mentioned.
It might sound out of contact with actuality to Western audiences, and it was clear this method was ruffling some feathers of different journalists on the tour. Additional, the entire idea of the Singapore Lady and emphasizing the significance of physique form for the kebaya has garnered loads of criticism over time for being sexist.
Whether or not you’re keen on or criticize the public-facing picture, there’s virtually a nationwide identification to the Singapore Lady.
Over time, the Singapore Straits Occasions newspaper has defended the Singapore Lady as an emblem of high quality on the airline; it mentioned that eradicating the picture can be akin to taking Mickey Mouse away from Disney World.
It is perhaps a meticulously crafted picture at Singapore Airways, however 14 weeks of coaching reveals loads of talent, experience and care are additionally behind this well-coiffed look within the cabin.
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