A passenger chased me down the plane galley – for cabin crew, this is just a normal day at the office
I’ve worked as cabin crew for six years, and I’ve never been so exhausted. I’m not the kind of person who usually suffers with fatigue, but crew are facing catastrophic and sustained levels of understaffing. Despite what you might hear about the travel chaos facing hard-working families who just want to get away for a well earned half-term break, being asked to travel with hand luggage alone to try to alleviate the huge delays and cancellations, the pandemonium at Britain’s airports doesn’t affect passengers alone.
Crew members are flying more than ever. Our hours are longer, our schedule more gruelling and our pay a pittance. Working for airlines used to be about luxury and glamour. Now, many of us can’t even afford to live near the airports, so we drive for hours to get home after long-haul flights on dangerously little sleep. Crew members are so tired they are having accidents – closed social media groups are full of tips for staying awake at the wheel.
That level of fatigue is only sustainable for so long. Days and days of early starts followed by long-haul flights wear you down, so crew are calling in sick. There is a lot of bitterness and anger towards the airlines, who used Covid lockdowns as an excuse to lay off so many of us. Bosses have been offering us cash lump sums to recommend new members of staff – and we’ve heard of airlines dropping leaflets through doors to try to get anyone and everyone to apply for vacancies. But it’s proving such a challenge to get people to fill the jobs that our union has told us our airline is considering increasing pay for new recruits – which is a huge slap in the face for the rest of us. There is talk of going on strike.
We’re used to dealing with difficult passengers, but travel
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