Nearly 6,000 Taiwanese women congregated in Taipei today to compete for flight attendant positions at China Airlines (CAL), creating quite a scene. CAL revealed that it plans to recruit 120 flight attendants this year, meaning only one out of fifty will be hired, signifying intense competition.

CAL's flight attendant training center, located at Taipei Sung Sang Airport, was besieged early this morning by numerous applicants dressed like white-collars. Most of them are college graduates, including 80 with master's degrees.

The flight attendants being recruited require a professional college degree, ability to speak English, a minimum height of 1.6 meters for females and not more than 24 years of age.

Han Liang-chung, spokesman of CAL said that due to several new routes to Europe, CAL will seriously consider applicants conversant in Italian.

In addition, to raise the level of services, CAL hopes to hire some with nursing degrees to ensure the ability to handle medical emergencies on board.

Statistics indicate that amongst the 6,000 applicants, sixty speak Italian and nearly 400 have nursing background.

CAL's experienced flight attendant trainer Ms. Pan pointed out that although in recent years, many young people have been attracted by the "outwardly beautiful" air stewardess positions, flight attendants trainees have to undergo five months of intensive drill. Therefore, only those women who can endure hardship can last to the end.

(Chinanews.cn June 4, 2005)