{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/aircraft-service-attendants/",
  "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology",
  "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.",
  "scored_at": "2026-08-11",
  "model": "claude-opus-5",
  "occupation": {
    "title": "Aircraft Service Attendants",
    "soc_code": "53-6032",
    "category": "Transportation",
    "us_employment": 31300,
    "median_annual_wage": 40450
  },
  "verdict": "EXPOSED",
  "risk_resistance": 53,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 16,
    "embodiment": 19,
    "liability_shield": 6,
    "trust_premium": 4,
    "judgment_accountability": 8
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "Dragging a fuel hose to a wing point, bonding the aircraft, hooking a lav cart to a service panel and driving a de-ice bucket around a tail cone are physical sequences no software performs; the 16 rather than 19 reflects that autonomous tugs and pit-fueling automation already exist in trials at large hubs and turnaround scheduling is being taken over by software.",
    "embodiment": "You work outdoors on live ramps in jet blast, wing ice, -10°F and 105°F, climbing de-ice buckets and crawling under fuselages around moving GSE — that is as uncontrolled as a worksite gets, and only the fact that it's a fenced, marked, procedurally governed apron keeps it off a 20.",
    "liability_shield": "There's no state licence to be an aircraft service attendant; you hold a SIDA badge, an airport driver's permit and carrier-specific fueling/de-icing training under 14 CFR 139.321, which employers can issue and revoke themselves — that's a 6, not a 2, because a fuel-quality or de-ice-holdover mistake is traceable to the individual signature on the service log.",
    "trust_premium": "Passengers never learn your name and the flight crew's contact with you is a thumbs-up through the window or a headset call on pushback; the only durable relationship is your lead's knowledge of who works fast and clean, which is why this sits at 4 rather than 0.",
    "judgment_accountability": "You call holdover time from the de-icing tables, decide whether contamination requires a second Type IV application and refuse to fuel when you see water in the sump — real calls with real consequences, but bounded by carrier procedures, checklists and a supervisor or captain who signs off, which caps it at 8."
  },
  "rationale": "Fueling aircraft, hooking up lav and potable water carts, de-icing, cabin cleaning, towing and marshalling on an active ramp in weather is physical work that language models cannot touch and today's robotics cannot do at cost. The exposure is not AI writing your job away — it's automated fueling systems, autonomous tugs and baggage vehicles, and AI-driven turnaround scheduling that squeezes headcount per flight. Pay and staffing are set by carriers and ground-handling contractors, and the role carries little licensure or client relationship to defend it.",
  "outlook": "The work itself stays human through 2035, but automated fueling, autonomous tugs and AI turnaround optimization will cut attendants per flight, so the safest ground is the certified fueling, de-icing, and towing tier.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "An FAA rule or airline/insurer requirement that a named, certificated ground-handling technician personally sign the fueling and de-icing release for each departure — analogous to the de-icing holdover-time attestation already required under FAR 121.629 and to fuel-quality sign-offs in airline GOMs. If an FAA rulemaking converted ground handling from carrier-delegated training to individual certification (repeatedly recommended by NTSB after ramp fuel-contamination and de-icing events), a human signature becomes non-removable from the turnaround even where the pumping and spraying is automated.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 6
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "Airport authority or insurer conditions that autonomous tugs/de-icers may operate airside only under a licensed human safety operator with recorded responsibility — the pattern already applied to autonomous ramp vehicles in trials at Heathrow, Changi and by Aurrigo/TLD, where a human remote supervisor is contractually accountable per movement.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "Task-mix shift: if automated fuel loading and autonomous baggage tractors absorb the routine tier, the residual role is exception handling — contaminated fuel calls, holdover-time judgment in changing precipitation, FOD and wing-contamination checks, aborting a pushback. Union contracts (IAM/Teamsters ground agreements) that name a designated turnaround coordinator per gate with authority to stop a departure would formalize that ownership.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 5
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Same two-tier shift raises the difficulty floor of what remains: lav/potable servicing on mixed legacy fleets, damage inspection, winter-ops improvisation in wind and slush are the tasks robotics cost curves fail on longest. Score rises only as headcount falls, so it is not protective of the number of jobs.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 2
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Trust premium has no realistic route — passengers never see or select the attendant, and the buyer is a carrier procuring on cost per turn. Even with full liability and judgment gains the occupation stays exposed on headcount, because the levers protect the role's necessity, not its staffing level."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 12170,
        "wage": 36390
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 19720,
        "wage": 37050
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 24940,
        "wage": 39110
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 27310,
        "wage": 41540
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 31300,
        "wage": 40450
      }
    ],
    "from": 2021,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": 157.2,
    "comparable_from": 2021,
    "spans_soc_revision": false
  },
  "pivots": [],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}