Carol Fair stepped off American Airlines Flight 733 from London Heathrow and into Charlotte Douglas International Airport for the last time Monday, ending a career behind the beverage cart that began 63 and a half years ago. At 83, Fair had spent decades as the airline’s most senior flight attendant, and her final descent into Charlotte came complete with a water-cannon salute and a crowd waiting with flowers, photographs and signs.
Fair started flying in 1963, according to WSOC-TV, which reported she is the longest-serving flight attendant for American Airlines. She told the station she originally planned to fly for only six months, but the job stuck and became a career she loved. By the time she retired, Fair had climbed to No. 1 on American’s seniority list out of roughly 30,000 flight attendants, a milestone detailed by The Charlotte Ledger.
As WCNC reported, Fair described the moment in emotional terms: “It was amazing, just amazing. I never dreamed a little girl from East Tennessee, 19 years old today here.” She also offered a simple philosophy for the decades she spent in the air, telling the station, “It is important to love what you do; if you do not, you need another job.”
A Career Rooted in Piedmont’s Charlotte Hub
Fair chose her final route deliberately. The same report from the Ledger notes she selected the London-to-Charlotte flight because she had worked Piedmont Airlines’ first Charlotte-to-London flight decades earlier. The Ledger dates that inaugural flight to June 15, 1987, while the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum lists Fair as having served aboard Piedmont’s first Charlotte-to-London flight in June of 1986 — accounts that diverge on the exact year…