Just occurred to me that you hardly ever run into Nigerians working as cabin crew on any of the major airlines.
Not even the ones with a huge national outlook, like BA, Lufthansa, or KLM. Even airlines like Qatar, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, that hire a very diverse mix, you find a lot of Kenyans, Ethiopian, and black South Africans working as cabin crew on those airlines.

But I have only ever come across one or two Nigerians on any of these airlines. One was obviously a Brit, though with a Nigerian name (that was on a BA flight to Toronto), and the other was on Qatar. And I fly international a lot, something like six times a year.

Anybody have a clue why this is so? I mean, we are quite well-represented in most endeavors across the world. I am not sure it is a reputation thing (before people start talking about Nigerians' bad image). It can't possibly be that.

Any ideas?

They don't trust Nigerians.

Emirates doesn't collect credit cards from Nigeria/Nigerians online. Why would they want to hire a Nigeria to work with them?

Was wonderin about dis aswell but just felt that most born nd raised in naija but later left d shore insearch of greener pasture will consider the job a risky one(I stand to b corrected)
As per me oooo, I no fit do d job lai lai.
I travel alot though, but I always feel like being locked in a coffin whenever the air safety procedures is being demonstrated.
I remember on flight to barcelona last yr wen oxygen mask droped... Na dat day I knw say I no get mind atall.

obowunmi: They don't trust Nigerians.

Emirates doesn't collect credit cards from Nigeria/Nigerians online. Why would they want to hire a Nigeria to work with them?

I knew someone was gonna come up with the reputation thing. It can't be just that.

There are a lot of Nigerians in the diaspora at least, even if we exclude Nigerians living in Nigeria. And, if we look at our local market, the Nigerian aviation industry is one of the oldest in Africa. We've got tons of qualified aviation professionals with lots of experience. We should be exporting these people, if I judge by other industries. We have exported tons of energy professionals to all parts of the globe, and we've also exported telecom engineers (considering mobile comms is less than two decades old in Naija!)

There must be something else.

Well as someone working in the aviation industry, I'll tell you most Nigerians in Nigeria and overseas don't find the just attractive.

It's common knowledge that most flight attendants practically "live in their bags", very hard to have a family and have a stable home.

Though we have loads of them on domestic routes and very few on the international routes. And also some country carriers limit the amount of "foreigners" they employ for their carriers. I have many girl friends that are flight attendants for domestic carriers in the US and even recently, Virgin Atlantic still employed a large number of flight attendants from former Virgin Nigeria.

godfadda6: Well as someone working in the aviation industry, I'll tell you most Nigerians in Nigeria and overseas don't find the just attractive.

It's common knowledge that most flight attendants practically "live in their bags", very hard to have a family and have a stable home.

Though we have loads of them on domestic routes and very few on the international routes. And also some country carriers limit the amount of "foreigners" they employ for their carriers. I have many girl friends that are flight attendants for domestic carriers in the US and even recently, Virgin Atlantic still employed a large number of flight attendants from former Virgin Nigeria.

Ironically I've flown most of the domestic carriers in the US (JetBlue, Delta, United, SouthWest, American) and have never come across any Nigerian.
I haven't flown Virgin in a couple of years. I guess with the volumes they do out of Naija, they would have a few Nigerians on the Lagos-London route.

But outside that nko? Emirates hires a lot of Africans, never any Nigerians. Same as Qatar Airways.

@ Ajanlekoko, I still think reputation is an issue. Even in the U.S if you have a Nigerian name or travelling to Nigeria and attempt to book your ticket online thru Emirates...their system won't accept your credit card.

Back then with Nigerian Airways, Nigerian Air Hostesses were creme-dela-creme. Don't think that stands anymore.

Don't know about other countries but cabin crew in the UK don't earn that much as far as I know. Irregular shifts plus shyte pay is not a naija thing.

Pay is just not attractive enough
Most flight attendants do the job because of the interest they have in discovering new places and we Nigerians just aren't cut out to value enjoyment/satisfaction over the ability to acquire all the good things life has to offer

nigeria doesnt have a national airline, unlike most of these other countries.

a national airline will hire mostly its own nationals.

and it stands to reason if an arab airline is going to hire african employees, they'll be from countries around the horn of africa, or east africa, since there's a heavy arab presence there.

jay bee: Pay is just not attractive enough
Most flight attendants do the job because of the interest they have in discovering new places and we Nigerians just aren't cut out to value enjoyment/satisfaction over the ability to acquire all the good things life has to offer

Yeah, pay may not be attractive enough, but Nigerians work on the Underground or National Rail. Are those guys paid better than airline cabin crew?
You make it sound like Nigerians all over the world are working only big money jobs. There has to be another reason.

AjanleKoko:

Yeah, pay may not be attractive enough, but Nigerians work on the Underground or National Rail. Are those guys paid better than airline cabin crew?
You make it sound like Nigerians all over the world are working only big money jobs. There has to be another reason.

Those working on the underground/national rail definitely earn more when the compensation given as a result of living in London (London weighting) plus other perks (free rail/travel card which is far more useful than free fight tickets) that they enjoy gets taken into account.

jay bee:
Those working on the underground/national rail definitely earn more when the compensation given as a result of living in London (London weighting) plus other perks (free rail/travel card which is far more useful than free fight tickets) that they enjoy gets taken into account.

Okay oh.

AjanleKoko:

Okay oh.

May be this will persuade you

I have a friend that works for TFL as a design engineer probably earns around 40K per annum. He gets to travel free on the underground with his wife. He lives around zone 6 and works in Zone 1 meaning they are saving close to 6K per-annum just on transportation alone.

Someone with same level of experience working for an airline will probably earn roughly the same amount with free flights to destination of his choice once or twice a year. Now realistically how many times do people go for holiday every year and even if they do utilize the free flight, won't they still be dipping into the comparable salary making them worse off?

I guess the same logic when applied to those on lower salaries makes it even more worthwhile for people choosing to work for underground/national instead of the airlines.

jay bee:
May be this will persuade you

I have a friend that works for TFL as a design engineer probably earns around 40K per annum. He gets to travel free on the underground with his wife. He lives around zone 6 and works in Zone 1 meaning they are saving close to 6K per-annum just on transportation alone.

Someone with same level of experience working for an airline will probably earn roughly the same amount with free flights to destination of his choice once or twice a year. Now realistically how many times do people go for holiday every year and even if they do utilize the free flight, won't they still be dipping into the comparable salary making them worse off?

I guess the same logic when applied to those on lower salaries makes it even more worthwhile for people choosing to work for underground/national instead of the airlines.

Jay Bee, I doubt very much that your friend earns 40k, he'll be close to 60k. TFL's pay is crazy never mind their generous pension guranteed by the tax payers and above inflation pay rises courtesy of the RMT. I worked for them for 3 yrs before I chose the greener pastures of the granite city. I left in 2005, at the time station assistants were on 20k approx, ticket office assistants 23k, train drivers 31k approx and station supervisors level 1 on close to 35k. Why else do you think there are so many naija's working for TFL?

naijababe:

Jay Bee, I doubt very much that your friend earns 40k, he'll be close to 60k. TFL's pay is crazy never mind their generous pension guranteed by the tax payers and above inflation pay rises courtesy of the RMT. I worked for them for 3 yrs before I chose the greener pastures of the granite city. I left in 2005, at the time station assistants were on 20k approx, ticket office assistants 23k, train drivers 31k approx and station supervisors level 1 on close to 35k. Why else do you think there are so many naija's working for TFL?

PLEASE IM QUITE LOST ON THIS ONE OOO .... IS IT ALSO NAIJA OR OFFSHORE

obowunmi: They don't trust Nigerians.

Emirates doesn't collect credit cards from Nigeria/Nigerians online. Why would they want to hire a Nigeria to work with them?

Sir, it'll have been better if this observation is limited to just cabin crews. these people don't want to even have nigerian nationals handle the ground operation services too and that's quite frustrating.... I think if we can have more of our own airlines in operations then we can have more jobs created and solve another 15,000 unemployed youth's nightmare.... I am not surprised every time I apply to emirates or etihad through their platform and they keep sending mails that I don't quality and i just don't seem to comprehend what "Qualify" is in their own dictionary but don't blame them, Blame Our government who killed the pride of Nigerian Airways.

jay bee:
May be this will persuade you

I have a friend that works for TFL as a design engineer probably earns around 40K per annum. He gets to travel free on the underground with his wife. He lives around zone 6 and works in Zone 1 meaning they are saving close to 6K per-annum just on transportation alone.

Someone with same level of experience working for an airline will probably earn roughly the same amount with free flights to destination of his choice once or twice a year. Now realistically how many times do people go for holiday every year and even if they do utilize the free flight, won't they still be dipping into the comparable salary making them worse off?

I guess the same logic when applied to those on lower salaries makes it even more worthwhile for people choosing to work for underground/national instead of the airlines.

naijababe:

Jay Bee, I doubt very much that your friend earns 40k, he'll be close to 60k. TFL's pay is crazy never mind their generous pension guranteed by the tax payers and above inflation pay rises courtesy of the RMT. I worked for them for 3 yrs before I chose the greener pastures of the granite city. I left in 2005, at the time station assistants were on 20k approx, ticket office assistants 23k, train drivers 31k approx and station supervisors level 1 on close to 35k. Why else do you think there are so many naija's working for TFL?

All of this is in the UK.
I am talking about ALL international airlines, not just BA and Virgin.

AjanleKoko:



All of this is in the UK.
I am talking about ALL international airlines, not just BA and Virgin.

AjanleKoko:

Yeah, pay may not be attractive enough, but Nigerians work on the Underground or National Rail. Are those guys paid better than airline cabin crew?
You make it sound like Nigerians all over the world are working only big money jobs. There has to be another reason.

You did post the above, besides I doubt if other airlines would a heck more than the competition just because the competition based in a different country.

drumma:
PLEASE IM QUITE LOST ON THIS ONE OOO .... IS IT ALSO NAIJA OR OFFSHORE

Huh! I don't understand what you mean

naijababe:
You did post the above, besides I doubt if other airlines would a heck more than the competition just because the competition based in a different country.

Everybody seems to think Nigerians don't work in international airlines because the aviation sector workers are paid poorly relative to others. That can't be right, especially since we're not talking about mine workers or something. It can't just be money. Not like Nigerians have the pick of jobs or careers wherever they choose to work.

AjanleKoko:


Everybody seems to think Nigerians don't work in international airlines because the aviation sector workers are paid poorly relative to others. That can't be right, especially since we're not talking about mine workers or something. It can't just be money. Not like Nigerians have the pick of jobs or careers wherever they choose to work.

Bros, Nigerians are wired to think about money and money alone, you and I are just as guilty. When was the last time any Nigerian took a job just because he might enjoy it? Our enjoyment only comes from the $ tag on a job.

AjanleKoko: Just occurred to me that you hardly ever run into Nigerians working as cabin crew on any of the major airlines.
Not even the ones with a huge national outlook, like BA, Lufthansa, or KLM. Even airlines like Qatar, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, that hire a very diverse mix, you find a lot of Kenyans, Ethiopian, and black South Africans working as cabin crew on those airlines.

But I have only ever come across one or two Nigerians on any of these airlines. One was obviously a Brit, though with a Nigerian name (that was on a BA flight to Toronto), and the other was on Qatar. And I fly international a lot, something like six times a year.

Anybody have a clue why this is so? I mean, we are quite well-represented in most endeavors across the world. I am not sure it is a reputation thing (before people start talking about Nigerians' bad image). It can't possibly be that.

Any ideas?

Two questions you need to ask yourself before creating a thread.
1, Do Nigeria have a world standard aviation school? No.
2, The jobs are available but, Nigerians are not qualify for the job..
That is the basic reason..

naijababe:

Bros, Nigerians are wired to think about money and money alone, you and I are just as guilty. When was the last time any Nigerian took a job just because he might enjoy it? Our enjoyment only comes from the $ tag on a job.

Speak for yourself, miladi, na una dey drink oyel moni

Anyway . . .I don't agree on the following premises:

1. You make an assumption that Nigerians are the only race that likes money, or knows how to earn money. No matter what we think (and I know we think highly of ourselves that way) it is highly improbable. We might be desperate for money, but other people are better equipped to earn more money than any average Nigerian. I'd even make bold to say that we usually play catch up in that regard. The average Nigerian doesn't even have a lot of info.

2. You also assume that jobs in other sectors are that plentiful, such that it is a matter of choice. Also highly improbable. Nigeria has produced a lot of aviation professionals since the days of Nigerian Airways, which was the largest carrier in SSA in the '80s. When the airline collapsed, I am sure some of these people may have moved abroad or something. It's logical to assume that people like that would try for jobs in the aviation industry where they moved to.

And I don't think aviation pays that bad anyway. Heck, Spain pays air traffic controllers something like 300k Euros a year.

There must be something else. I'm not even referring to the 'national' airlines like BA. Airlines like Qatar, Emirates, Etihad. If you have flown any of these airlines, you'll understand what I am saying.
These guys obviously pay well, better than a BA would. Why do I think so? The crew is way too multinational to be poorly-paying. American pilots, British Engineers, then a plethora of cabin crew from Azerbaijan to Ukraine, with some smattering of Spanish, Kenyan, Indian, and German thrown in for good measure.
And it's always like that on these airlines, cos their own nationals don't work at all anyway.

Only money would be attracting such a diverse group of people to an Emirates. Usually, if it was some other profession, a Nigerian would turn up somewhere in the middle. Why not in aviation?

There must be a reason, different from all these una assumptions. Just not logical. Nigerians working in Virgin or Arik nko? I'd have expected them to have forced their way into Emirates or Qatar, in the usual Naija way. Those airlines are flying to Naija.

fados4sure:
Two questions you need to ask yourself before creating a thread.
1, Do Nigeria have a world standard aviation school? No.
2, The jobs are available but, Nigerians are not qualify for the job..
That is the basic reason..

World Standard is very relative, my friend. The aviation industry is more driven by experience, not by which school they went to. For example, a pilot is evaluated by his/her certifications, on which aircraft, and their flying hours. Nobody cares which flying school they went to. If you have logged x number of hours and have up to date certifications on, say, Boeing 777, that is what a prospective employer would look at.

90% of Nigerian pilots went to NCAT in Zaria, a school that has only a couple of prop-engine light aircraft as training tools. It was when they didn't have any aircraft and subsequently did not graduate any more pilots that Bristow and Aero started sending cadet pilots to South Africa.

Typical Nigerian reasoning you just exhibited there.

AjanleKoko:

Speak for yourself, miladi, na una dey drink oyel moni

Which oyel moni? Since when?

1. You make an assumption that Nigerians are the only race that likes money, or knows how to earn money. No matter what we think (and I know we think highly of ourselves that way) it is highly improbable. We might be desperate for money, but other people are better equipped to earn more money than any average Nigerian. I'd even make bold to say that we usually play catch up in that regard. The average Nigerian doesn't even have a lot of info.

You prolly need to go read my posts again, being desperate for money and better equipped to earn it are two separate things. A vast majority of Nigerians fall in the former.

2. You also assume that jobs in other sectors are that plentiful, such that it is a matter of choice. Also highly improbable. Nigeria has produced a lot of aviation professionals since the days of Nigerian Airways, which was the largest carrier in SSA in the '80s. When the airline collapsed, I am sure some of these people may have moved abroad or something. It's logical to assume that people like that would try for jobs in the aviation industry where they moved to.

Who said jobs in others sectors are plentiful?! Me? All my post said was that Nigerians chase after the highest paying jobs even if they are not qualified for it. Nigeria Airways became finally bankrupt 9 yrs ago in 2003. How old would those cabin crew staffers be now? You can't seriously be suggesting that airlines would choose them over a pool of talented young people that are mostly multi lingual, a necessary skill for today's cabin crew.

And I don't think aviation pays that bad anyway. Heck, Spain pays air traffic controllers something like 300k Euros a year.

There must be something else. I'm not even referring to the 'national' airlines like BA. Airlines like Qatar, Emirates, Etihad. If you have flown any of these airlines, you'll understand what I am saying.
These guys obviously pay well, better than a BA would. Why do I think so? The crew is way too multinational to be poorly-paying. American pilots, British Engineers, then a plethora of cabin crew from Azerbaijan to Ukraine, with some smattering of Spanish, Kenyan, Indian, and German thrown in for good measure.
And it's always like that on these airlines, cos their own nationals don't work at all anyway.

Your original post said cabin crew not the aviation industry as a whole, besides qualified air traffic controllers earn in excess of £100k in the UK too, so kini big deal about Spain paying 300k euros.

Only money would be attracting such a diverse group of people to an Emirates. Usually, if it was some other profession, a Nigerian would turn up somewhere in the middle. Why not in aviation?

There must be a reason, different from all these una assumptions. Just not logical. Nigerians working in Virgin or Arik nko? I'd have expected them to have forced their way into Emirates or Qatar, in the usual Naija way. Those airlines are flying to Naija.

Force their way to becoming cabin crews? For this:

http://www1.qatarairways.com/global/en/cabincrew-benefits.html Abeg!!!

Qatar airways compete directly with Emirates and Etihad and unless the latter two are mugus, I doubt if their salary structure would be that much different from QA's.

naijababe:
Force their way to becoming cabin crews? For this:

http://www1.qatarairways.com/global/en/cabincrew-benefits.html Abeg!!!

Qatar airways compete with Emirates and Etihad and unless the latter two are mugus, I doubt if their salary would be that much different from QA's.

Something is wrong somewhere. Maybe that's for the trainees. You know say these people no sabi English
I don't expect Europeans to come to Qatar for that chump change. Even Nigerian airlines pay more than that, surely

Anyway, I think we're debating too much about the pay. Even if na 500 dollars a month, at least you would expect that some Naijas would show up there.
Abi?

AjanleKoko:



Something is wrong somewhere. Maybe that's for the trainees. You know say these people no sabi English
I don't expect Europeans to come to Qatar for that chump change. Even Nigerian airlines pay more than that, surely

Just admit that you misyarned jare .Tax free money, plus some sorted of discounted accommodation and free holidays is a big factor. Oyibos only care about their holidays o

AjanleKoko: Anyway, I think we're debating too much about the pay. Even if na 500 dollars a month, at least you would expect that some Naijas would show up there.
Abi?

Ok o show up for $500? Dem swear for them ? Just admit that it's all about the Benjy for most of us

i think i have an insight 2 ds, & its in line with fado's tot.......now has anyone eva tot of wat it takes 2 b a cabin crew member for common dana, arik or aero, it not a position where a fresh grad apply for just like dey do with GTB, access or zenith bank with d hope of "i will learn on d job", i once checked d req for cabin crew for arik n i was like waow! U have various levels n u must b certified by bla bla bla, even d certs have levels too, i checked d fee for a local training institute in ikeja for cabin crew n i saw 250K.... Dont lets 4get dt b4 KLM, alitalia, BA n co will pick a cabin crew dey must have more dan wat dana n aero will demand (more cash right ?)
lets go international n a little outside aviation, eva wondered y d no of nurses in d US r more of immigrants (blacks with a good num of nigerians)? D answer isnt far, d locals wont go to uni 2 study BSc nursing, dey'll wld rather do pharmacy or physio if d think dey cant do medicine cos it cost almost same tin (time, cash n resources) so why settle for nursing wen pharmacy with higher prestige n pay is there, ds is y d immigrants dt have 'sense' see d space as a legal n faster way 2 earn good cash in d US, most of dem even do 2yrs crash program n viola, dey don dey balance well, as a certified nurse, driving good cars without looking 2 check if d police is coming, now take note of dis immigrants doing ds jobs, some of dem r lawyers, engineers, n oda pro frm their countries n feel nursing is stinking but dont have a choice, now there are some locals frm US (mayb d slum areas) who wont mind nursing but cant sincerely afford it...

Back 2 aviation, d same complex where my institute was in hyderbad, India was dis institute 4 cabin crew n likes, guess how much? 120K rupees abt 400K naira, now how many ladies can tell their dad 2 shell out 1m for a course in india 2 bcom cabin crew pro, in my view dose dt can afford dt cash will feel such a job is poo for their respected child, y nt 'kuku' bcom a pilot or an aircraft maintenance engr, dey r likely 2 say (remember d case of nursing i highlighted above) d low income earners dt dont mind such a job 2 make ends meet cant afford such cash plus d exam dt will make dem worthy of KLM, BA n d likes....

@ d end, we have pple dt r far above dt status n pple dt r far below it, d only few pple dt r spot on or can stretch or bend to it r d likes dt lost their lives in d june crash in iju, may their souls RIP

naijababe:

Jay Bee, I doubt very much that your friend earns 40k, he'll be close to 60k. TFL's pay is crazy never mind their generous pension guranteed by the tax payers and above inflation pay rises courtesy of the RMT. I worked for them for 3 yrs before I chose the greener pastures of the granite city. I left in 2005, at the time station assistants were on 20k approx, ticket office assistants 23k, train drivers 31k approx and station supervisors level 1 on close to 35k. Why else do you think there are so many naija's working for TFL?

Granite city? That has to be Aberdeen. I'm new here and am all for networking and connecting with decent people who do decent jobs. I know you fit that description.

Donxavier:

Granite city? That has to be Aberdeen. I'm new here and am all for networking and connecting with decent people who do decent jobs. I know you fit that description.

Hmmm afi connection na Do you play football? My hubby and some other naija professionals play football/hang out together. I can hook you up

naijababe:


Hmmm afi connection na Do you play football? My hubby and some other naija professionals play football/hang out together. I can hook you up

Nope, am a new RGU master student...Just started this September. Not football now, jobs. Na job I dey find lol. Anyhow, maybe you or he knows some people that know some other people that might be of help I shall PM you.

Donxavier:

Nope, am a new RGU master student...Just started this September. Not football now, jobs. Na job I dey find lol. Anyhow, maybe you or he knows some people that know some other people that might be of help I shall PM you.

My personal advice is for you to join the football team, they only play once a week. All of them are either senior engineers or Lead engineers where they work. That's a fantastic network right there, but it's up to you sha.

naijababe:

My personal advice is for you to join the football team, they only play once a week. All of them are either senior engineers or Lead engineers where they work. That's a fantastic network right there, but it's up to you sha.

Dude probably doesn't understand how networking works
If only he knows how some people get jobs just by tagging along to pubs after work on fridays.

Abeg me sef fit join that footie team