Up, up and away

Simon Marton spent years as a steward, flying thousands of miles. We find out what life was really like 30,000 miles in the air.

When did you start working for the airline?

I joined the airline industry nearly twenty-five years ago – which instantly makes me feel old. In late 1995, having worked a summer season on the Greek island of Santorini, I had gained a new inner confidence and decided it was time to attempt something new, which combined my childhood love of aircraft and travel with my natural people skills. I felt it was time for reinvention. The thought of working on and around airliners created the magic for me, rather than anything else, and being up in the skies appealed to my sense of adventure. I didn’t dress particularly smartly as a rule, nor did I wear make-up, but I really wanted a change for the better, to improve myself in some way and to go for a job which I thought might fit me, regardless of the intense competition.

And you were successful…

Within five...