Flight attendants in ethnic costumes on a Lucky Air plane. Photos provided to China Daily

Ethnic airline service with international plans

Lucky Air has just concluded a new round of flight attendant hiring, and has chosen 50 members of ethnic groups in Yunnan province, in southwest.

This hiring move is intended to create a "Cabin culture with Yunnan ethnic characteristics" at Lucky Air, to introduce Yunnan local culture to people, said Li Dianchun, a vice-president at Lucky.

Lucky is based in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan.

"I'm a 23-year-old senior at the Yunnan Institute of Arts," said Ma Puli, from the Hui ethnic group in Yunnan. "This October I was a model at a real estate trade fair and had to wear a flight attendant's uniform. It gave me a good spiritual and physical feeling, and, since then I have wanted to be a flight attendant."

Ma said that in fact she wanted to be a flight attendant as far back as senior high school, when she found out that they could go to many places and had an attractive salary.

Another applicant, Yang Lin, from the Achang ethnic group, told China Daily that he had graduated from Dehong Vocational College this July.

He said the job had an oral English assessment, but his English was poor, so he got into a short training class. Now, he has no problem introducing himself and communicating in English.

The registration office was packed with people from the Naxi, Bai, Bulang and more than 15 other ethnic groups, from various cities and towns in Yunnan, such as Lijiang, Xishuangbanna, Mangshi, Lincang and Wenshan.

The hiring, which started Oct 20, attracted more than 1,000 students. It mainly targets ethnic undergraduates here and juniors or seniors from any vocational schools or colleges, who qualify for the Primary Assessment Criteria of Airlines Group Flight Attendant.

Those speaking Asian languages like Thai, Burmese, and Laotian are given a higher grade. And, they need to take the oral English assessment test.

"Seeing those attendants dressed in native costumes makes us feel good. We ask which ethnic group they belong to, and they introduce us to their customs. This is a way of carrying on their culture, at introducing their hometowns to tourists," said a tourist from Beijing.

Li, the vice-president, said the ethnic flight attendants will help tourists understand Yunnan's culture better.

Yuannan has the largest number of ethnic groups in China - 25 in all - some of them with very long histories.

"We're a native Yunnan airline, and we hope we can serve the province and make a great contribution to Yunnan's economic development and to the stability of the frontier region," Li told China Daily.

Young applicants registering at the hiring desk.

On a Lucky Air flight.

(China Daily 12/08/2010 page14)