To become cabin crew in the UK, you need to be 18 or older, hold a passport that lets you travel across your airline’s route network, pass a swimming test, and clear a CAA medical and background check. Apply directly to an airline like British Airways, easyJet, Jet2, Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair, or TUI, get through their assessment day, then complete a paid training course to earn your Cabin Crew Attestation – the official certificate that legally allows you to work the role.
That’s the short version. The details, though, are where most applicants trip up, so here’s what each part involves.
The real requirements
Every UK airline sets its own criteria, but a few things are non-negotiable across the board. You need to be at least 18 years old, have the right to live and work in the UK with no criminal convictions, and hold a valid passport that permits travel to every destination the airline flies to. Most carriers also want you to swim 25 metres unaided, and several go further – easyJet requires you to swim 25 metres unaided, tread water, inflate a life jacket, and climb in and out of a life raft. That’s not a formality. It’s tied to water evacuation training you will do before you ever step on a plane.
Height gets misunderstood constantly. There’s no single UK legal height requirement – it depends on the aircraft type and how high the overhead lockers sit. Ryanair expects candidates to fall between 157 cm and 188 cm, which covers the emergency and service equipment on their fleet. Jet2 only sets a minimum, 157 cm, with no maximum reach requirement specified. TUI’s apprenticeship route, by contrast, asks for the ability to reach 189 cm with bare feet flat on the ground because of the jump seat harness and locker height on their aircraft. Check the specific airline’s range rather than assuming you are too short or too tall – the numbers genuinely differ by fleet.
Tattoos are another sticking point people worry about unnecessarily. Most airlines allow them, provided they are covered in uniform. easyJet requires no visible tattoos on the head, face, or neck, and British Airways and Ryanair follow similar rules – visible ink on the arms or torso is fine as long as it’s hidden under the uniform.
You don’t need a qualification, but it can speed things up
A degree or foundation qualification isn’t required for cabin crew work. Airlines just expect a good secondary education, with some asking for grade 4 (C) or above in English and maths. That surprises a lot of applicants who assume airlines want travel and tourism diplomas.
That said, there are two structured routes worth knowing about. First, short cabin crew preparation courses run by colleges or private training providers. These aren’t essential, but they can help your chances at interview stage. Second, apprenticeships – TUI’s Level 3 Cabin Crew Apprenticeship is the clearest example. It’s a 9-month paid program combining cabin crew training with real in-flight experience, ending in a nationally recognised qualification equivalent to two A Levels. You earn a wage while training, which beats paying for a preparation course out of pocket.
What happens during the application
The process is fairly standardised across major UK carriers. You apply online, complete a screening stage, then get invited to an assessment day if shortlisted. Jet2’s assessment includes a presentation about the role, icebreaker and group activities to test teamwork and communication, and one-to-one interviews for standout candidates. Group exercises exist because cabin crew work is fundamentally about handling people under pressure, not reciting facts about the aircraft.
Pass the assessment and you will move into vetting. British Airways runs this through a third-party referencing company, requiring a full five-year employment, education, and gap history covering both the UK and overseas. Every UK airline will also run a criminal record check, and most will ask for proof of vaccinations, including yellow fever certification for long-haul carriers with African or South American routes.
Training and the attestation you need
Passing interviews doesn’t make you legally able to fly as crew. You need a UK CAA Cabin Crew Attestation, a certificate of professional competency issued only after you complete an approved training course. Jet2 runs a four-week CAA-approved course covering safety procedures, customer service, and sales techniques. Ryanair and easyJet run similar programs lasting around three to five weeks, and you are paid a training allowance throughout rather than working for free.
The interesting part is what happens after you leave an airline. Your attestation stays valid, and UK CAA rules require you to declare any GB-issued attestation held within the past five years when applying elsewhere. In practice, this means someone who is already trained and certified can often skip straight into an accelerated “crew with attestation” hiring stream at a new airline, cutting weeks off the process compared with a first-time applicant. It’s the single biggest advantage of switching airlines within five years of your original training instead of leaving the industry and coming back later.
What you will earn
Salary varies more than most job listings let on, because base pay is often just one part of total income. British Airways starts new Heathrow-based crew at £20,500, rising to around £30,000 through flying pay and a tax-free subsistence allowance. Jet2 crew typically earn £23,000 to £28,000 in their first few years, with senior crew reaching considerably more. Ryanair’s entry-level base salary starts around £21,000, but that figure understates real income for crew who sell well onboard – sales bonuses are uncapped, on top of destination-based layover allowances.
That commission structure is worth understanding before you apply, especially at low-cost carriers. A quiet crew member and an outgoing one can end up with meaningfully different pay packets, even on the same base salary and roster, purely because in-flight retail is baked into the compensation model rather than treated as a bonus on the side.
The bit nobody mentions: attestation beats experience
If there is one thing to take from all this, it’s that the qualification barrier for UK cabin crew is lower than people assume, but the certification barrier is higher and more permanent than people realise. You can walk into an assessment day with zero aviation background and land the job on personality and swimming ability alone. But the attestation you earn during training follows you for five years and shapes how fast future airlines will hire you – that’s the part with the longest reach on your career, far more than which airline gave you your first uniform.