From projects on the ground to fulfilling her passion in the sky

As a young girl, traveling the world and the idea of living the “glamourous life” of a flight attendant, appealed to Michelle Wootton. Although she was one inch too short to work as a flight attendant in her home country of Australia, she sought out a job in the aviation industry to take advantage of the airline travel perks. After moving to the United States, her dream came true where she found her way to the sky as a flight attendant for Piedmont Airlines.

In May 2019, Michelle began working as an Administrative Assistant in the Piedmont Facilities department before being promoted to Project Supervisor on the Project Delivery team in Philadelphia. She worked on a variety of projects, including designing and building the back-up Operations Control Center and lower-level Headquarters office remodel in Salisbury, Maryland. “Sometimes I’d be working on a project covered in drywall dust and other times I’d be working in high heels out on the ramp,” recalls Michelle.

One of her favorite projects was repairing boarding ramp canopies. The ramp’s fabric canopies needed repair, and purchasing new canopies would be very expensive. Always resourceful, Michelle offered to utilize her sewing skills and traveled with her sewing machine to Charlotte to personally repair all the canopies herself. Another project she is proud of is designing and building the crew room at our crew base in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (MDT). The MDT crew room presented a few challenges logistically for Michelle and her team due to needing MDT employees with SIDA badge access to escort contractors. It also took some time to figure out all the network cabling to connect WiFi to the space.

Michelle enjoyed her role in Facilities but was always watching for the next flight attendant job opening. When the position opened in November 2022, she applied and began flight attendant training in January 2023.

“My dream of being a flight attendant finally came true,” shares Michelle proudly. “I enjoy the flexibility of the position, the travel and the people I work with are like a family.” The family feel extends to how she treats her passengers. “A little bit of kindness goes a long way. You never know what your passengers’ story is or why they are traveling. Sometimes offering a listening ear or words of encouragement help passengers who may be having a difficult day.”

The skills and knowledge that Michelle gained working on the Facilities team help her be successful as part of the Inflight team. As a Project Supervisor, Michelle traveled a lot and became adaptable to change, often at the last minute. “Being flexible when plans change quickly in my last role has helped tremendously as a flight attendant. Departure and arrival times can change, schedules can change, and you have to be ready to pivot on a moment’s notice.” Another asset that Michelle has found valuable as a flight attendant is resourcefulness. “I’m resourceful, which was a big part of executing projects. Sometimes as a flight attendant, you must be resourceful and think outside of the box to use what you have to get the job done.”

Michelle travels back to Sydney, Australia to visit her sons in college as much as she can using her company travel benefits. She is also enjoying her journey to becoming a glider pilot.

“I love working as a flight attendant at Piedmont,” shares Michelle. “I look forward to retiring from here and obtaining my lifetime travel benefits to see more of the world.”