One factor to say for certain is that the flight attendant will hardly ever have common shifts at any given time. Most of the time, it’s a mixture of late nights, early mornings, and something in between. It’s definitely not a job for anybody who likes a set schedule and the 9 to 5.
Brief-haul
Brief haul flights will be something from half-hour as much as 5 hours relying on the airline and the way they function. Most of those flights function between 05:00 and midnight. Flight attendants need to attend a briefing earlier than their flight, so that they need to arrive at their base nicely earlier than.
A day might seem like flying from London to Athens and again or flying London to Paris and again after which repeat. Typically, there could also be only one flight and a layover, however these have gotten rarer. The minimal day can be round seven hours and the utmost twelve hours, relying on delays. This may be working 5 or 6 days every week on common.
Picture: Etihad Airways
Lengthy-haul
After all, long-haul flights do embody a layover because it’s unattainable to remain inside responsibility hours in any other case. A minimal journey can be one thing like London to Dubai, 12 hours off, and fly again. The utmost can be London to Singapore, which in whole is round 14 hours. Many long-haul flights are scheduled as night time flights, so a flight attendant may very well be briefed at 21:00 after which be working in a single day.
The return flights are additionally usually in a single day, arriving within the early hours of the morning. Some airways usually do ‘again to again’ for a few of the routes touring west. The flight attendant may fly from London to New York, have 12 hours of sleep, then fly again, 12 hours sleep after which repeat the entire thing once more. On common, a long-haul flight attendant may have round 5 journeys a month.
Standby
Standby is one thing that each one flight attendants need to do, and it’s principally to cowl for any crew member who’s late or sick on the final minute. So, a interval of seven hours is assigned the place the crew member must be able to function any flight at brief discover. This may be from residence or from the airport, relying on the airline’s necessities. The issue is, you by no means know the place you’re going or how lengthy you’ll be away and what to pack. In the event you get fortunate, you may not be referred to as in any respect. You may additionally be referred to as an hour earlier than the tip of the standby interval to do a protracted flight, so long as it’s inside responsibility hours.
Some flight attendants discover extra stability in low-cost airways. Picture: easyJet
Obtainable
Some airways have a system of scheduling ‘out there’ days into your work sample. That is the place you can be on responsibility however solely obtain notification the night time earlier than. The 05:00 standby isn’t a well-liked one!
Worldwide airways
Many worldwide airways mix short-haul and long-haul routes, so a flight attendant roster could also be a mixture of the above. There could also be choices to bid for journeys additionally, which lets you match work round your way of life or vice versa.
Low-cost airways
With the rise in low-cost airways, some flight attendants want the workload. Most of the time, it implies that they’re residence each night time after their flights and may spend time with household. That is rather more tough if you fly worldwide routes, so for some, it provides extra stability.
