How This Private-Aviation Training Agency Takes Service to New Heights SkyAngels is out to make the skies a bit friendlier for flyers.

Steffany Kisling never expected to get into the rarified world of private aviation. "I grew up with meager means. Even a commercial flight was a luxury," she points out.

Today Kisling, a former cabin attendant on flights and yachts, is the founder of a business that specializes in extravagance: San Francisco-based SkyAngels, which trains über-cabin attendants to see to every need of the famous or wealthy who fly high on private planes.

Kisling launched the company in 2010, when recruitment for her first training class (now called SkyAcademy) netted applications from some 500 women. (To date, no men have signed on for training.) The interest came mostly through networking in the close-knit flight-operator community and through postings on LinkedIn and Craigslist. Of the initial applicants, Kisling interviewed 10 and eventually permitted three to go through the training process, setting the tone for a startup that was highly selective from the get-go.