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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

#21

Post by ThrustVectoring »

lsllc wrote: post #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 wh…

There will be a pilot, co-pilot, and additional pilot-rated staff performing cabin safety duties.

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

#22

Post by Swenrekcah »

jb775 wrote: post #20

> the airline said it planned to have its pilots temporarily assume flight attendants' roles Excuse me captain can you top off my orange soda and fetch me a bag of peanuts?....this isn't what their pilots signed up for, expect a Icelandair pilot strike next

It will be pilots otherwise unemployed performing minimal cabin duties ('cause covid dictates minimal interaction) while collecting a pilot's salary.

This isn't a cost cutting measure but a stopgap due to failed negotiations between the airline and flight attendants.

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

#23

Post by CydeWeys »

ashtonkem wrote: post #5

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.

And that's why the flight attendants aren't being replaced by untrained randos; they're being replaced by pilots, who have even more training than flight attendants do. And yes, that training includes how to evacuate passengers and other relevant procedures, because this is already something that pilots can and do get involved in in emergency situations.

Once the plane is down they have no further piloting needing doing and need to help with the evacuation. Witness Sully Sullenberger on the Hudson -- he was the last person out of the airplane, having already assisted all the passengers in evacuating and then gone back to perform a thorough sweep to ensure that no one else remained.

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

#24

Post by CydeWeys »

rwallace wrote: post #10
jbob2000 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're misunderstanding the linked article. There will still be flight attendants, just now they'll be pilots. I.e. there will be two pilots solely in charge of flying the plane, and then additional pilots in the cabin doing the flight attendant duties.

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

#25

Post by triceratops »

jbob2000 wrote: post #8
ashtonkem wrote: post #5

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?

An extreme example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neerja_Bhanot

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

#26

Post by lemmonii »

This is already outdated. Just now the cabin-crew union and Icelandair signed a new contract.

I couldn't find an article in english but in another article they say that all layoffs will be reversed.

https://www.visir.is/g/20201992741d/flugfreyjur-og-icelandai...

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

#27

Post by ornxka »

hindsightbias wrote: post #14

This article is confused. The cockpit crew will not be handing out drinks. Other pilot-rated employees will be acting as attendants. You can’t operate in the EU, US or Canada w/o someone attending in the back. You have to have so many attendants per passengers. Pilots are well qualified for any cabin duties. Many US pilots who have lost their rating or are going through a health issue that keeps them out of the cockp…

>The cockpit crew will not be handing out drinks.

The mental image this gave me was amusing:

>"Hey man, can you steer for a few minutes? I've gotta go push the drink cart."

>"Sure thing dude, I'll get it next time."

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

#28

Post by closeparen »

jbob2000 wrote: post #8
ashtonkem wrote: post #5

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?

Any time you have hundreds of members of the general public in a confined space, you're going to need a staff to manage whatever they throw at you, or to run an evacuation. Same reason theaters have ushers.

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

#29

Post by koboll »

ornxka wrote: post #27
hindsightbias wrote: post #14

This article is confused. The cockpit crew will not be handing out drinks. Other pilot-rated employees will be acting as attendants. You can’t operate in the EU, US or Canada w/o someone attending in the back. You have to have so many attendants per passengers. Pilots are well qualified for any cabin duties. Many US pilots who have lost their rating or are going through a health issue that keeps them out of the cockp…

>The cockpit crew will not be handing out drinks. The mental image this gave me was amusing: >"Hey man, can you steer for a few minutes? I've gotta go push the drink cart." >"Sure thing dude, I'll get it next time."

Don't need two pilots. Just have one pilot slowly push the drink cart with one hand while the other hand pilots the plane with a game console controller plugged into a VR headset. Then the passengers can simply grab drinks as it rolls by. Multitasking!

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

#30

Post by dnautics »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #15
jbob2000 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

First aid, detecting issues in the cabin, firefighting, checking the emergency exits and opening them or directing passengers elsewhere in case of an evacuation, ...

Dealing with passengers that have an sociopathic entitlement complex who get violent..
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