In 1976, Air Pacific appointed Sandra Valentine, a former air hostess and trainer of Ansett Airlines of Australia, as hostess superintendent to keep the air hostesses happy in order to bring higher efficiency in their work.
“This was entirely a new position created during the reorganisation of Air Pacific recently,” Ms Valentine said, according to an article published by this newspaper on October 16 the same year.
“It was found that previously the supervisor-cum-hostess had a great deal of work up on her.
“Personally, I think it is difficult to do both – to fly and to come here to arrange rosters and counsel girls at the same time.”
With gradual expansion, planning was inevitable, and improvement came by having a purely administrative post based at the head office.
“If you do not plan ahead, you will stand still. I have my own forward planning program for improving all the time in my department,” Ms Valentine added.
To help Ms Valentine in her administrative work, another new post was opened up for chief hostess, Tute Daveta, to act as a go-between with the hostesses.
“If the girls are not happy, she brings their grievances to me and does six-monthly checks on the rest of the hostesses,” she said.
Although Ms Valentine spent most of her time counselling girls on their various problems, she also prepared rosters and made sure there were hostesses to crew each outgoing flight.
She also amended rosters as requests arose. Besides, she arranged wet drills and arranged exams and training programs.
“Most airlines throughout the world do their own surveys on why and when hostesses leave them.
“With Air Pacific, we found girls tend to leave between September and December. To fill in the gap, we have to recruit, train, and have them ready by December.”
The new recruits received their training on 748 domestic aircraft in addition to going to Apia and Tarawa.
“The training is done at the head office, beginning with basic first aid by the St John Ambulance Brigade, then we move on to the aviation side of training, which is done on board the aircraft.”
Ms Valentine said the hostesses had to recognise the symptoms of an attack and what to do when a passenger suffered from angina.
“The hostesses’ work involves a lot of study on every aspect, from childbirth to how to treat a burn to having a sound knowledge of the technical details of the aircraft, both internal and external.”
She said swimming was one an important requirement.
“At the swimming pool, the hostesses are taught to inflate a life raft and how to pull people into it,” she said.
Essentially, air hostesses needed to have a lot of confidence and diverse abilities, from satisfying passengers’ whims to serving attractive trays.
Ms Valentine, at the time, had 20 girls who were solidly crewing BAC 111s, averaging three to four days flying a week.
Public relations, appearing attractive, and being a good saleswoman were all included in the training program.
“BAC 111s carry Christian Dior perfume for both male and female as one of the duty items on the aircraft,” she said.
Ms Valentine said one could not really teach everything to a hostess and change her personality.
“Experience speaks for itself. It is a glamorous job, but often people just think of the glamour side and forget the hard work that goes behind being a good hostess,” she said.
Before her marriage, Ms Valentine, who was born in Adelaide, worked as a hostess for Ansett Airlines from 1966 to 1971 and flew all around Australia.
She later reached the position of trainer.
“I trained and upgraded hostesses in different positions.”
In 1971, she met Curling Valentine, a well-known Fijian sportsman, at Nadi while she was holidaying there. Soon after, she married Mr Curling in Adelaide before coming to Fiji.
For four and a half years, Ms Valentine worked as a secretary to the shipping manager of the Carpenters group.
“I still had an interest in flying.
“I thought this job was the next best thing and applied for the post I now hold.”
The article said the Valentines had one daughter named Kara.
