Riyadh Air guarantees its cabin crew 75 flight hours a month until the end of 2026.
Every one of its recruitment postings lists, under what it offers, a "Competitive compensation package including a guaranteed 75 flight hours per month until the end of 2026". Flight hours are how cabin crew pay is topped up across the Gulf, and a floor under them answers the obvious worry about a new airline: a thin network means thin rosters. The guarantee is published with an end date attached.
The same line appears in each posting: "Full salary payment during your entire training period."
Two of the five carriers in this series say anything about the money around training, and they point in opposite directions. Riyadh Air pays you through it. flydubai publishes a "Training Bond: USD 2,650/approx. AED 9,700 for the first year", which is what leaving early costs. Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways address neither.
What Riyadh Air does not publish is a salary figure, at any grade.
What Riyadh Air asks for
Eight requirements, identical word for word across all fifteen city postings open on 23 September 2026:
- "Age requirement: You must be at least 21 years old to join our crew."
- "Education: A high school certificate or higher is required."
- "Customer service experience: At least one year in hospitality or a customer-facing role."
- "Height & Reach: At least 160 cm tall with an arm reach of 212 cm."
- "Language: Fluent English is essential, and welcome skills in all other languages."
- "Swimming skills: You must be a confident swimmer and able to use flotation devices."
- "Professional appearance: No visible tattoos or piercings in uniform."
- "Visa & relocation: You must meet Saudi employment visa requirements and be open to relocating to Riyadh, your new home."
The numbers on the physical bar match Emirates. Riyadh Air asks for 160 cm and a 212 cm arm reach. Emirates asks for the same two figures, as "At least 160cm tall and able to reach 212cm high" on its careers page and, on its job posting, "at least 160cm tall and can reach 212 cm while standing on tiptoes, to enable you to reach emergency equipment on all aircraft types". Those are the only two carriers in this series to publish both measures. Etihad sets a height and no reach, a "Minimum height of 163 cm". flydubai sets a height and no reach, a "Minimum height of 158 cm, in accordance with our safety regulations". Qatar Airways sets a reach and no height, asking on its postings that you "Can reach a minimum height of 212 cm with your arms fully extended".
The figures are the same and the wording is not. Emirates says tiptoes count. Riyadh Air says arm reach and does not say how it measures, so do not assume the two are interchangeable at the tape.
The strongest swim requirement in the set. Two of the five publish one at all. flydubai asks candidates to be "Confident in the water when wearing a flotation aid/life jacket", which tests confidence with a buoyancy aid. Riyadh Air asks for both abilities: "a confident swimmer and able to use flotation devices". Swimming is the higher bar, and Riyadh Air is the only carrier here that asks for it outright. Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad publish no water requirement on their cabin crew careers pages or in their cabin crew job postings.
On experience, Riyadh Air's one year in hospitality or a customer-facing role matches the Emirates careers page, which asks for "At least 1 year of hospitality or customer service experience", and flydubai, which asks for one year in a customer service role. The Emirates job posting phrases the same bar as "more than a year's experience". Etihad requires none. Qatar Airways prefers two or more years without requiring any.
Its appearance line covers piercings as well as tattoos, as Etihad's job posting does. Riyadh Air publishes no grooming or style guide behind it, where Etihad publishes two full reference guides and flydubai refers to standards it does not publish.
How you apply
Riyadh Air runs a cabin crew job portal separate from its general careers portal, on iCIMS. It carried 18 listings on 23 September 2026: fifteen named recruitment events, two direct entry senior roles, and one Arabic-language training programme. Every listing gives its job location as Riyadh.
The fifteen event cities were Sydney, Shanghai, Beijing, Johannesburg, Baku, Algiers, Paris, Dubai, Amman, Madrid, Manama, Seoul, Riyadh, Manila and Jeddah.
None carries a date or a venue. Each says to click "Apply" to submit an application for the named city's recruitment event, and adds that "Our Talent Acquisition team is reviewing applications now and will be in touch with qualified candidates soon". They behave as application windows attached to a city rather than events you can turn up to, which is how Qatar Airways recruits. Emirates and Etihad both publish dated calendars naming the city, though neither publishes the address: Emirates gives the venue to invitees, and Etihad publishes none.
For that reason these fifteen windows are not on our open days calendar. A calendar entry needs a date.
The two senior roles
Purser and Cabin Supervisor are posted as direct entry, so experienced crew can join above entry grade rather than starting in economy. The two postings are word for word identical apart from the role name and one number:
- Purser: "Minimum 4 years of experience in a flying role inclusive of onboard leadership"
- Cabin Supervisor: "Minimum 2 years of experience in a flying role inclusive of onboard leadership"
Both also ask for a "High school diploma or equivalent" and "Fluency in English (other languages are a plus)", and describe leading a cabin "across our Premium and Economy cabins". Neither posting repeats the eight cabin crew requirements: there is no height, no reach, no swimming line and no tattoo line on either, and neither publishes pay.
Two years of onboard leadership is a low bar for a supervisory grade at a widebody carrier, and it is the clearest sign in the portal of how fast Riyadh Air is trying to build a crew structure.
A route open only to Saudi nationals
Riyadh Air's careers site describes a second way in, the "NAWAT Cabin Crew Program, an eight-month training journey designed to equip the next generation of Saudi cabin crew with the skills, confidence, and warmth to represent the Kingdom on a global stage". It says the programme was "Developed in partnership with Bunyan for Training Company and aligned with international aviation standards".
Among the benefits it lists are "Training guaranteed to lead to employment upon successful completion" and "Hands-on training and an internationally recognized cabin crew qualification".
The listing itself is published in Arabic only. Its requirements are Saudi nationality, the ability to travel to all Riyadh Air destinations, a secondary school certificate or equivalent, a grasp of the basics of English, and completion of every stage of the training. It sets out no height, no reach, no swimming requirement and no appearance rule.
The English bar is the difference worth noting. The international route asks that "Fluent English is essential"; the Arabic listing asks for the basics. This is a national training pathway rather than a parallel hiring route, in the same family as the cadet programmes Saudi carriers run for pilots, and it is closed to everyone else.
What Riyadh Air does not publish
Across all eighteen listings and the portal's index:
No selection process. No stages, no description of what happens at a recruitment event, no document list, no dress code, no format, and no statement of whether any part is remote. Riyadh Air is the least forthcoming of the five on this: flydubai publishes four named stages, Emirates and Etihad both describe their assessment day, and Qatar Airways, which also publishes no process, at least does not advertise events to attend.
The one page that comes close is titled "Recruitment policy" on the airline's own site, and it is an applicant privacy notice rather than a description of hiring. It does say Riyadh Air may receive personal data from third parties "in connection with a background or reference check", and that it discloses data to parties "providing data processing, candidate sourcing and screening, background verification services". That is the only published signal that screening happens at all.
No salary figure, at any grade, despite publishing an hours guarantee and paid training.
No medical standard. No timeline between applying and hearing back beyond "will be in touch with qualified candidates soon". No grooming or style guidance. No recruitment event dates or venues.
The fraud warning
Riyadh Air publishes a warning headed "Kind alert" across its cabin crew portal. It sits in the page furniture rather than in any one advertisement, so it appears on the job list and on every individual job page.
It states that "there have been fraudulent websites or links that ask individuals to pay monetary fees when applying for jobs at Riyadh Air through unofficial channels or websites", and reminds applicants that "Riyadh Air will only engage with potential applicants through our official channels and that Riyadh Air would never request any payments or personal bank details during the application process".
Three other carriers in this series publish one. Etihad carries a "Recruitment Fraud Alert" on its cabin crew job posting, stating "We will never ask for personal information, bank details, or payment during the recruitment process". flydubai carries a longer warning on its careers home page. Emirates publishes a dedicated recruitment fraud page, which opens: "Any job offer, seemingly from the Emirates Group, that asks you for money is fraudulent." It goes further than the others on account security, warning that "malicious individuals may impersonate Emirates Group staff" to obtain login credentials, and that the Group "will never ask you to share your User ID, password, or any login credentials at any stage".
No such warning appears on the Qatar Airways cabin crew postings read for this series.
Anyone applying to Gulf carriers for the first time should read one of them in full, because all four describe the same approach: an offer that looks real, arriving unsolicited, followed by a request for bank details or a fee.
A note on sourcing
The requirements, the compensation lines, the application wording and the fraud warning come from Riyadh Air's cabin crew job portal, read on 23 September 2026. All eighteen listings were opened. The fifteen city recruitment event postings carry an identical requirement block and an identical list of what the airline offers, checked line by line rather than sampled. The Purser and Cabin Supervisor postings were read in full. The listing count and the fifteen event cities come from the portal's index on the same date.
The NAWAT description and its benefits are quoted from the English careers page on riyadhair.com. The programme's requirements are from the Arabic listing on the portal, which is the only place they appear, and are summarised here in English rather than quoted, because a translated quotation is not the airline's published wording.
The comparisons come from each airline's own cabin crew pages and job postings: Emirates and Qatar Airways read on 21 September 2026, Etihad and flydubai on 22 September 2026, and the Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways cabin crew job postings and the Emirates recruitment fraud page on 23 September 2026. Where this piece says one of those carriers publishes nothing on a subject, that is scoped to those pages and postings.
A note on the hours guarantee. Our own Gulf pilot benchmark reports a Riyadh Air flight-hour guarantee for pilots expiring in December 2026, but that comes from circulated contract terms rather than anything the airline publishes. The cabin crew guarantee above is published by Riyadh Air on its own postings. Do not read the two as one policy.
Recruitment postings are withdrawn without notice and their URLs stop working when they are. Confirm against Riyadh Air's own portal before applying.
Where Riyadh Air does not publish something, this piece says so rather than filling the gap. Nothing here comes from candidate accounts, coaching sites or recruitment agencies.