First flight attendant

The first person to act as a steward or cabin attendant on an aircraft was Heinrich Kubis (Germany), who began attending to passengers on board the DELAG Zeppelin LZ-10 Schwaben in March 1912. Kubis initially worked on the flights alone but was later supported by an assistant steward on board the 20-passenger LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin. He also took the role of chief steward on the famous 72-passenger LZ-129 Hindenburg, where he led a team of male stewards, and was on board when it burst into flames at Lakehurst in New Jersey, USA, on 6 May 1937; he escaped with his life by jumping out of the window as the cabin neared the ground. Kubis was born on 16 June 1888 and died in the 1970s (date unavailable).

DELAG – the Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft or German Airship Transportation Corporation Ltd) – is considered the first passenger airline, running a scheduled service from Berlin to southern Germany starting on 24 August 1919 (prior to this, dirigible flights were flown for sightseeing purposes, as opposed to scheduled travel).

The first female flight attendant was widely considered to be registered nurse Ellen Church (USA, 1904–65), who made her first appearance for Boeing Air Transport, the predecessor to United Airlines, on 15 May 1930.