From serving passengers to selling crabs: Chinese woman quits airline job after 12 years to return to hometown, now earns Rs 14 lakh a day

For 12 years, Xiao Chen worked in the airline industry as a flight attendant. Today, his working day looks very different. Instead of preparing flights and taking care of passengers, he spends his time picking crabs, packing seafood orders and coordinating deliveries to his hometown in China. Chen’s career change may seem unexpected, but it was driven by family need. According to Vietnam.vn and Sina reports, his mother’s crab business was growing and she needed more help to manage her work. Chen eventually decided to leave aviation and return to Ningbo, a coastal city in China’s Zhejiang province, to help the family business.What began as a step to support her mother has given Chen the opportunity to apply her previous knowledge to a new situation. He has turned to short video platforms to showcase the business, introduce potential customers to its products and bring more attention to the seafood business. The business reportedly recorded daily sales of over 100,000 yuan, or about Rs 14.45 lakh, during the busy Mid-Autumn Festival period. However, as demand rises, Chen faces a challenge that no amount of online promotion can solve on its own: finding enough high-quality crabs to fill every order.

From offering rides to advertising crabs online

Changing jobs after more than a decade in aviation meant entering a different kind of working life. Chen’s new duties cover several stages of the family business, from picking crabs to making sure orders are filled and shipped to customers. She also found a way to make her experience as a flight attendant useful beyond the airport. Communication was an important part of his previous career, and now he uses those skills to present the business online and connect with potential buyers.His short videos give a look at the day-to-day work behind the sales. Rather than being seen in a flight attendant’s uniform, Chen is seen holding crabs, working near ponds and overseeing the packaging process. The content gives viewers a glimpse of how a family business works, rather than simply showing the finished product.The videos have attracted attention on social media, with some viewers reportedly becoming customers after finding the business online. This has helped the family to reach consumers beyond their territory and explore a sales channel that is not completely dependent on conventional methods. For a fresh seafood business, showing the work behind the product can help customers understand the effort involved in selecting and preparing orders. So Chen’s online presence has become an important part of the family’s efforts to reach a wider market.

Festival demand brings with it a huge sales and supply challenge

The family business has experienced a surge in demand during the Mid-Autumn Festival, a time when crabs are the most popular gifts in China. The rush of the season brought a heavy workload for Chen and his coworkers. Reports say that the business recorded daily sales of over 100,000 yuan during the festive season, which equates to around Rs 14.45 lakh. The figure highlights the magnitude of demand the family business was handling at the time, although it refers to reported sales rather than profits.Surgery did not make the operation any easier. Chen struggled to find enough green crabs to meet customer demand. If supply is limited, receiving more orders than the business can fulfill can put pressure on quality and delivery commitments. Instead of trying to sell as much as possible, Chen chose to limit orders when the available supply was insufficient. The decision reflects a real challenge for the growing seafood business: attracting customers is only one part of the process, while maintaining product quality depends on having enough suitable stock.His move from flying to the family business shows that a career change can involve more than just swapping one job for another. Chen took responsibility while using social media to help his family reach new customers. At the same time, the reported sales figures emphasize the need to balance growth with the realities of getting fresh seafood. For Chen, the transition brought a new routine, a different way to use his professional skills and a responsibility to help manage a growing business. The next challenge is to ensure that demand can be met without compromising the quality that customers expect.