The competition for a recent Asiana Airlines recruitment drive for male flight attendants was a staggering 244:1. Some 2,684 candidates jostled to fill just 11 available positions.
For female flight attendants the competition is 120:1 on average, but among men it has been above 200:1 for the last three years.
Asiana executive Cho Young-seok said Sunday, "Working on flights offers more flexible work schedules than a desk job, and the entry-level salary of around W40 million plus perks has attracted a lot of applicants."
Out of a total 3,480 flight attendants at Asiana, just 190 or 5.5 percent are men.
Also contributing the rising popularity of the job is increasing social acceptance and even kudos as the service sector expands and the middle class dwindles.
Yang Won-young, who has been a flight attendant at Asiana for 17 years, said, "When I first started, many passengers gave me funny looks for being a man who goes around pouring drinks, but these days passengers treat me as a professional, like a hotelier, sommelier or barista."
The credentials of candidates have also become more impressive. Most are around 180 cm tall, attractive, graduates of prestigious universities and fluent in English and other foreign languages.
