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Icelandair letting go its flight attendants and shifting their duties to pilots

businessinsider.com

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Re: Icelandair letting go its flight attendants and shifting their duties to pilots

#4
Flight safety concerns will likely nix this. But regardless, that's a bad way to end a labor dispute in these times. But with Wow Air bankrupt there isn't all that much competition to and from that airport. Over half of all destinations reachable from Iceland are flown by Icelandair.

Re: Icelandair letting go its flight attendants and shifting their duties to pilots

#6
post #4

Flight safety concerns will likely nix this. But regardless, that's a bad way to end a labor dispute in these times. But with Wow Air bankrupt there isn't all that much competition to and from that airport. Over half of all destinations reachable from Iceland are flown by Icelandair.

Will they even be allowed to operate in EU like this?

https://www.easa.europa.eu/the-agency/faqs/minimum-required-...

>when establishing the number of cabin crew needed for each aircraft and flight (...) by either applying the number established during the certification process or by a calculation of 1 cabin crew member per 50 installed passenger seats.

Re: Icelandair letting go its flight attendants and shifting their duties to pilots

#7
Who's going to sit with the pilot when the co-pilot goes to the bathroom (and who's going to block the isle with the cart while that happens?).

Seems like they're using COVID19 as an excuse to solve their labor dispute:

  Services "will continue to be at a minimum, as (they have been) since the impact of COVID-19 started," the airline said.
Pilots need to be aviating, navigating and communicating, not worrying about what's going on in the cabin!

Re: Icelandair letting go its flight attendants and shifting their duties to pilots

#8

I would actually be surprised if that’s legal. Flight attendants perform some critical safety functions, they’re not glorified wait staff that can be replaced on a whim.

I don’t mean to be ignorant, but what are these critical safety functions? The closest thing to safety that I’ve seen is they give the speech at the beginning about oxygen masks and remind you to buckle up.

Given that the inflight safety demonstration is on video now, what’s the critical safety role?

Re: Icelandair letting go its flight attendants and shifting their duties to pilots

#10
post #8

I would actually be surprised if that’s legal. Flight attendants perform some critical safety functions, they’re not glorified wait staff that can be replaced on a whim.

I don’t mean to be ignorant, but what are these critical safety functions? The closest thing to safety that I’ve seen is they give the speech at the beginning about oxygen masks and remind you to buckle up. Given that the inflight safety demonstration is on video now, what’s the critical safety role?

My safety worry wouldn't be the lack of flight attendants per se, it would be distracted pilots. The pilots have enough to keep track of already. The last thing we need is having planes start crashing because a pilot was distracted dealing with a passenger.
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