NEED TO KNOW
- Carla Robinette celebrated her 11th anniversary as a Southwest Airlines flight attendant on April 25. What made the milestone even more special was that her youngest daughter, Kyla Robinette, graduated from the airline as a new flight attendant that day
- “I was in tears when I saw her in her uniform for the first time. I was just so proud and happy,” Carla tells PEOPLE
- Days later, Carla joined Kyla on her first official working flight, co-working the entire three-day itinerary together
She has her mother’s eyes — and wings!
Since she was 16 years old, my younger sister, Kyla Robinette, 21, has wanted to be a flight attendant at Southwest Airlines like our mother, Carla Robinette, 51. Although taking off in Carla’s footsteps was a bumpy ride, Kyla’s journey culminated in a “dream come true” landing.
“I had waited so long, it felt surreal when it finally happened,” Kyla shares.
Carla wasn’t much older than Kyla when she started working as a flight attendant at America West Airlines in 1996, when she was 23 years old. She worked at the airline for ten years until 2006, when she gave up the jetset life, instead becoming a server so that she could raise us without traveling often. Eight years later, she was ready to return to the skies — this time at Southwest Airlines.
My mom had to retrain after her time away and graduated from Southwest’s flight attendant program on April 24, 2014, but her hire date was actually the following day, April 25, 2014. At the time, she had “no idea” that her youngest daughter would graduate as a flight attendant on the same day more than a decade later.
“I was in tears when I saw her in her uniform for the first time,” Carla shares. “I was just so proud and happy that she was finally fulfilling her dream job that she has wanted for years. There were some obstacles that delayed her getting her job, which has made earning her wings mean so much more to her now.”
Southwest Airlines flight attendant graduation for classes 611 and 612 took place at the company’s headquarters in Dallas on Friday, April 25. As a member of the aviation industry, Carla had the honor of giving Kyla her wing-shaped name badge on stage.
“I cried,” Kyla recalls. “It meant the world to me to have my mom there. Graduating was also a big weight lifted off my shoulders.”
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Kyla’s career path wasn’t as smooth as Carla’s and actually began nearly two years ago.
In September 2023, Kyla was “excited” to finally be old enough to apply online to be a flight attendant. She knew how much her mom loved her job and even joined her at several Southwest holiday parties and volunteer events over the years. After a phone screening, Kyla completed a one-way virtual interview and was selected for an in-person interview, which took place at Dallas headquarters in November 2023. The next day, she was informed she would be moving forward with training.
Training was originally scheduled in April 2024, but in March that year Kyla received the “shocking” news that inflight training classes for the remainder of 2024 were canceled due to “aircraft delivery delays and planned capacity reductions.”
The “devastating” email from the Southwest Inflight Recruiting Team stated that individuals impacted by the delay would receive “priority consideration and placement at the front of the line” when the flight attendant role was posted externally again. However, there was no estimation on when that would be.
“I was heartbroken and dying to start my career,” says Kyla, who was working as a bartender. “I knew that it would happen but it felt like time was moving slowly. I wanted it so bad, and was counting down the days until training started up again.”
Nine months later, in December 2024, Kyla got a call asking if she was still interested in the position. Of course, she was. From there, things moved “very quickly.”
Training for her class, 612, was approximately four weeks long, beginning on March 31 in Dallas. There were 125 flight attendant trainees total in her group, including The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise alum Michael Barbour.
Only 107 people graduated, with Kyla being the youngest.
“Training was a lot,” Kyla admits. “It was all-consuming, very hands-on. It was all you thought about, day and night, all day every day.”
Training involved learning regular and irregular operations, including memorizing public announcements and airport codes as well as safety, emergency and medical protocols.
“A lot of people think we tend to learn more about service and handing out snacks and beverages when they don’t realize how intense it really is,” Carla explains. “It’s not all about service, so much of the job is safety related.”
Although Carla was “thrilled” for her daughter, she was also “extremely stressed out” while she was away. Carla knew firsthand just how difficult studying all of the material could be. Back then, training was five weeks long instead of four.
“All I did was study,” Carla remembers. “You lived and breathed it. I told her it was going to be a stressful, intense deal. I was not going to be at ease until I knew that she had passed.”
With classes averaging ten hours a day and homework to be completed afterward, Kyla was often not going to bed at her hotel until 4 or 5 a.m.
Although she admits she was “exhausted,” she received support from Carla, who would occasionally have FaceTime study sessions with her. Kyla also made friends with her classmates, who were “all rooting for each other.”
On Carla’s 11th anniversary as a flight attendant, she flew to the Lone Star State with me to see her baby girl officially become her coworker.
“It was one of the proudest moments seeing her complete that, a very teary-eyed moment seeing her enter the next chapter of her life,” Carla says.
Even better, Kyla was “blessed” to be stationed at the same base as Carla: Phoenix.
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A few days after graduation, Carla joined Kyla on her first official working flight from Baltimore to Chicago on May 1. She continued to work with her on her three-day trip itinerary on May 3.
“I was more than happy to announce on the flights that my daughter was working her first trip and made sure she had a good time,” Carla says. “It was actually fun helping her learn the ropes. It was nice being able to mentor her.”
Working with her mother on her first trip “eased a lot of stress” for Kyla. It also made what might have been a nerve-racking experience “fun.”
In addition to receiving congratulations and applause from passengers, Kyla felt welcomed by the flight attendants and pilots she worked with. Other Southwest Airlines outbound employees even made a tunnel in the jetway to cheer for her after learning she completed her first trip.
“Southwest is like a second family,” Carla says. “It was nice to see that they were showing her the love.”
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