AC cuts F/As on Wide Bodies

[Kip Powick]

It may take longer in coming weeks for passengers to get a drink, pillow or a newspaper aboard some of Air Canada's lengthy overseas routes, says the union representing the airline's flight attendants. After paring nearly $2 billion worth of annual costs during its bankruptcy protection, the airline plans to have fewer flight attendants work overseas routes to Europe, a cost-cutting measure that an Air Canada union says will slow service and might even compromise passenger and employee safety.

According to a May 9 letter sent to Air Canada and circulated yesterday to the carrier's 6,700 flight attendants, Pamela Sachs, an official with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, objected to Air Canada's plans to cut by one the number of flight attendants who work on trans-Atlantic flights.

Effective June 1, Air Canada plans to have 10 flight attendants work aboard its Airbus 330 planes, down from the current 11. On routes using Airbus 340 planes, the carrier wants to have nine flight attendants instead of 10, Sachs wrote.

"Everyone knows that if we are required to act as safety professionals on a flight, numbers will make a difference," Sachs wrote in the letter to Susan Welscheid, an Air Canada official. "Furthermore," she wrote, "reducing crew complement will also threaten the health and safety of our members who would be required to do more with less. You have failed to respect the law when developing and implementing new work procedures. And you dangle the prospect of profits ahead of the health and safety of our members."

An Air Canada spokesperson said that even after the airline reduced the number of flight attendants on European-bound flights, it would still exceed Transport Canada's required minimum staffing levels. A spokesperson for the federal regulator couldn't be reached.

In a May 5 letter to the union obtained by the Toronto Star, Welscheid said Air Canada would consider in coming months expanding the cost-cutting move to include other international routes, such as flights to Central and South America and Asia.

"This will ensure our success in remaining competitive within our industry," Welscheid wrote, adding that rising fuel costs were among reasons for the change. "It is our commitment to ensure that safety and customer service on board will not be compromised by these changes."

Air Canada has also hired an unnamed "time and motion expert" from the University of Toronto to "explore other services to improve the service," she wrote. Other moves Air Canada said will improve service include a plan to have two hospitality-class flight attendants, after meals are served, moving to the executive class cabin "to ensure optimal customer service for our premium passengers," Welscheid's letter says. As of July 1, meals in executive class will also be served on a tray.

A move to improve service in hospitality class includes combining bar and meal service, allowing passengers to order beer and wine at the same time they receive their food.

In a bid to pare costs to exit bankruptcy, Air Canada reached an agreement with CUPE for flight attendants to surrender $136 million worth of wage and benefits cuts. Air Canada "cannot change these crew complements with more than four years left in the negotiated collective agreement that was based on this court-approved business plan without consequence," Sachs wrote.

Air Canada's Airbus 330s, which seat 42 executive and 232 hospitality-class passengers, typically fly to destinations including London, Frankfurt and Paris. The 340-series jets seat 42 executive and 225 hospitality-class passengers, and primarily fly to Japan, China and other Asia locations. The A340 planes occasionally fly to European cities, said an airline spokesperson.

[Guest V1]

They may sleep less, now they feed em fast diviy up the next 10 hours for sleep then do breakfast in the last 2 hours. They each get 4-5 hours of sleep/ flight

[YYC I/C]

The new airline reality.

The middle-class passenger is disappearing. Either you pay extra and get business class with 4 f/a's for 42 pax's or you buy strictly on price, sit in the back, and get 5 f/a's for 252 pax's.

[CD]

They may sleep less, now they feed em fast diviy up the next 10 hours for sleep then do breakfast in the last 2 hours. They each get 4-5 hours of sleep/ flight

Those darn pilots... Just think - sleeping all that time on the flight deck after getting fed and watered when they could be doing something productive...

CASS 720.23 - Controlled Rest on the Flight Deck

[Guest stones]

So I guess I am going to have to start bringing my own mix?

[Guest Starman]

I'm sure that it is difficult to do the same service in the same amount of time with fewer F/A's, but when you consider that Thai Airways can board 13 F/A's for less than the price of 7 of ours (and with the same ZFW), it's easy to see why we are at a competitive disadvantage in regards to cabin service...

[AME]

and with the same ZFW

Oh boy, you in trouble now

[handyman]

Oh boy, you in trouble now

But it was a good one.

[deicer]

Oh boy, you in trouble now    

Could this be a flight attendant audition???

http://abum.com/?show_media=7459&file_type...moulin_huge.wmv

Ready to Stop, Drop, and Roll

Iceman

[FA@AC]

I'm sure that it is difficult to do the same service in the same amount of time with fewer F/A's, but when you consider that Thai Airways can board 13 F/A's for less than the price of 7 of ours (and with the same ZFW), it's easy to see why we are at a competitive disadvantage in regards to cabin service...

Point taken, but on the other hand Thai Airways doesn't waste money paying F/A's to deadhead from YYC to YYZ and back to YYC again in order to make work for them and AC needn't do so either. You also have a number of the European carriers with higher crew costs than AC that manage to operate profitably with larger crew complements. AC's international economy service doesn't measure up all that well to that of most of its competitors as it now is. Further reductions to it aren't likely to be well received by customers, but we'll see.

[Guest Starman]

I couldn't agree more with you on management inefficiency within the company. If management leaned out the operation in terms of overall efficiency, the money saved could easily be put toward enhancing the product for the customer.

[handyman]

We have all seen service reductions since 911. Would it not be correct in assuming less service = less cabin crew to the minimum safe requirement?

Only asking.

[ccairspace]

This has absolutely nothing to do with the subject of the thread, but as I was reading the title, it struck me just how important a preposition can be...

[cp fa]

Starman, one of these days I'm going to rat you out and tell the other flight attendants what ZFW means.

[YYC I/C]

cp fa,

Are you sure you're not a groupie??????

You remind me of some of our F/A's that are attracted to Jetz for the crowd they carry, except your thing seems to be pilots.

You love talking about their management, their relationship with their crew sched, jepeson binders, etc.

I'm assuming from your cp fa designation that you're a F/A, am I wrong????

[Mitch Cronin]

YYC/IC... Groupie?

I don't know if that kind of a comment warrants a response, and maybe I'm the last one who should answer you anyway.... but just for the sake of being kind....

Jennifer has a thing for pilots allright... one in particular... a long time AC pilot who's been her jetz star for many moons. Even while she worked for the competition. She retired a few years ago, but due to her husband's position she still has a rather unique insight (for an ex-fa) into the needs and quirks of pilots (management and others) working at AC.

[Mitch Cronin]

This has absolutely nothing to do with the subject of the thread, but as I was reading the title, it struck me just how important a preposition can be...

... ... Looking at that now, you'd have to expect some kind of comment on that... Good one.

[cp fa]

Thanks for coming to my rescue Mitch, but I wouldn't have even bothered responding to that. I thought your response was very grown up though.

[mo32a]

Starman, one of these days I'm going to rat you out and tell the other flight attendants what ZFW means.

Zest For Work

[sjsa]

"AC cuts wide bodies on F/As"

It's for their own health.

[Beth]

Could this be a flight attendant audition?

Gee Deicer - what were you using for search keywords to find that one? 'Sexy' 'Fat' Drag Queen'......?!?!? AND WHY?!?!?

rotflmao