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

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

#41
post #31
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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."

I remember the first time I flew in the mid eighties. The plane was a twelve seater, the pilot asked for one of the passengers to sit up front and 'be' the copilot. When it came time to hand out the refreshments, he would get the copilot to pull drinks out of the eski, and pitch the plane up so they could roll the drinks down the aisle.

I wasn't asked to be co-pilot, but I flew on Cape Air which is a small airline based around, you guessed it, Cape Cod (well, mostly connecting small airports in MA, ME, NH, VT, etc to Boston Logan).

It was a 6 (maybe 8) seater and one of the seats is next to the pilot in the co-pilot seat, which I was lucky enough to get.

Landed in a snowstorm which was a bit nerve wracking as I got total spatial disorientation with the light reflecting off the snow passing the windshield.

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

#42
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember the first time I flew in the mid eighties. The plane was a twelve seater, the pilot asked for one of the passengers to sit up front and 'be' the copilot. When it came time to hand out the refreshments, he would get the copilot to pull drinks out of the eski, and pitch the plane up so they could roll the drinks down the aisle.

It makes me sad that we've sacrificed many genuinely human moments like this to modernity.

It has been sacrificed due to an ideology which is inherently non-modern, to be fair (and if that ideology was better contained or eliminated we would be better off).

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

#43
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes me sad that we've sacrificed many genuinely human moments like this to modernity.

It has been sacrificed due to an ideology which is inherently non-modern, to be fair (and if that ideology was better contained or eliminated we would be better off).

Care to unpack this?

The two ideologies that come to mind when I think of air travel are process improvement and safety theatre.

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

#44
post #43
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has been sacrificed due to an ideology which is inherently non-modern, to be fair (and if that ideology was better contained or eliminated we would be better off).

Care to unpack this? The two ideologies that come to mind when I think of air travel are process improvement and safety theatre.

I think the GP is referring to a specific ideology which (like all others of its ilk) involves supernatural entities.

Personally, I think the situation merits a bit more nuance than pinning the blame on just one ideology -- but this is a discussion I would not want to start, so I'll just leave it at that. (Edited for clarity and typos.).

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

#45
post #29
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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!

No need for a VR set when you are already living in the simulation just reroute some plugs and you can do multitasking with remote viewing.

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

#46
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember the first time I flew in the mid eighties. The plane was a twelve seater, the pilot asked for one of the passengers to sit up front and 'be' the copilot. When it came time to hand out the refreshments, he would get the copilot to pull drinks out of the eski, and pitch the plane up so they could roll the drinks down the aisle.

It makes me sad that we've sacrificed many genuinely human moments like this to modernity.

What do you mean? I remember the pre 9/11 days, and they were fun. I was a kid that would sit with the pilots on the jumbo jets and take pictures with them and the flight attendants, who would give me extra tomato juice. Didn't happen after 9/11 though.

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

#47
post #29
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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!

Why not add autopilot functionality to the drink cart?

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

#48
post #43
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has been sacrificed due to an ideology which is inherently non-modern, to be fair (and if that ideology was better contained or eliminated we would be better off).

Care to unpack this? The two ideologies that come to mind when I think of air travel are process improvement and safety theatre.

The cockpit door is shut and locked not due to safety theatre but actual safety. The ideology he’s talking about is Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, though to be honest, that tends to happen. Exploitable opportunities eventually get shaved away just due to the volume of attacks.

Once upon a time computers were simple, then we needed anti-worm stuff. Such is life.

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

#49

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...

What kind of deal did they get? Did they meet in the middle, or did the airline force them to sign a terrible deal?

Doesn't look like the one they were hoping for:

The bargaining committee of Flugfreyjufélag Íslands and Icelandair have signed a new wage agreement. The new agreement is expected to be valid until September 30, 2025. It is based on an agreement that was recently rejected in a vote.

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