Sri Lankan Airlines recently embarked on a mission to find the crème de la crème of air hostesses, and let’s just say the criteria were… quite specific! Out of a whopping 6,000 hopefuls who dreamed of soaring the skies, only 196 made the cut. Why? Well, Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva had a checklist: clear skin, an unblemished midriff (saree-ready, of course), and a mastery of English to chat up the passengers.
Picture the scene: a sea of applicants, each more eager than the last, only to be turned away for a tiny pimple or a mark on their midriff – ouch! The Minister, playing the role of a beauty and language guru, advised future applicants to start their pimple-fighting regimen and English lessons practically in the cradle. He lamented that many, especially from rural areas, missed this memo early on.
The interview room must have been quite the stage, with candidates putting on their best show of beauty and eloquence. But alas, if your English wasn’t up to snuff, you were out of the flying game. The Minister stressed that chatting and assisting passengers in English is a must in the high-flying world of air hostesses.
While Sri Lankan Airlines might not be the biggest contributor to the country’s economy, Minister de Silva is keen to bump up those numbers. His recipe? Start young with your skincare and English books, and who knows, you might just be the next star of the skies!
