PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - EasyJet to cut A319 to 150 Seats
View Single Post
Old 8th May 2022, 13:48
  #2 (permalink)  
nicolai
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: It used to be an island...
Posts: 244
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
They did that a few years ago on a trial from STN (maybe other bases too). They blocked the centre seats in the first three rows, then had the SCCM on their own up front. Easy crews don't slack at the best of times but the poor SCCM on the flights I saw was at it non stop the whole flight - boarding pax, pre departure checks, handling the ground staff, announcements, then setup of the buffet, run the buffet down the front of the aircraft on their own, take down the buffet, prepare for landing... very very busy the whole time.

The trial didn't last long. As far as I know the crew weren't very happy with it (and crew then could seek other opportunities if they wanted, and now they can seek them even faster). I also think it hit the boarding and therefore turnaround time, and the F&B revenues because it took longer for one crew to serve than two.

At least taking out the rear row is removing the worst seats in the aircraft - each seat is 5cm narrower than the usual seats.

I appreciate Easy are pretty desperate for crew (who isn't?), but they're going to have to be careful not to burn out the existing crew. This might be a better idea for longer flights, where there's a no-service mid-section of the flight, rather than the short ones like intra-UK, Amsterdam, Ireland, etc.
nicolai is offline