As the crush of passengers boarded United
Flight 618 to Hawaii here last month, they passed by a silver-haired
flight attendant in bifocals who greeted them with an “Aloha, welcome
aboard.”
Most of them appeared more focused on finding their seats than sizing up
the flight crew, but this flight attendant, Ron Akana, stood out, not
least because of the 11 sparkling rhinestones on the wings pinned to his
lapel. The first one was to commemorate his 10-year anniversary as a
flight attendant, and he was given another for every subsequent five
years of flying.
Yes, Mr. Akana has worked as a flight attendant for 63 years, clocking
some 20 million miles along the way, the equivalent of circling the
globe about 800 times or flying roughly 40 times to the moon and back.
Though no one tracks seniority across all airlines, he is widely
believed to hold the title of longest-serving flight attendant in the
United States.
“People keep on telling me to apply to the Guinness Book of Records,” he said. “I’ll let somebody else do that."
