GS Alpha
They cannot train up quickly enough, because they have allowed levels to get too low before they started recruitment again.
There may be an element of truth in that, however, the real underlying problems are:
1. the average 22.9 days per year sickness taken by Cabin Crew (source BASSA) with the resultant levels of standby crewing required - Longhaul and Shorthaul.
2. the archaic rostering agreements (esp in shorthaul) which means they will not stay on an aircraft at LHR on arrival to go somewhere else but need to go and rest for at least 90 minutes, and frequently 3+ hours [and getting paid up to £50 each if they reduce below 2 hours!]. This means if they are late they frequently lose subsequent sectors, again requiring extra standby crews. [If you go into the Compass Centre you will see about 100 cabin crew sitting around].
This means their productivity averages 40 flight hours per month in Shorthaul vs 75 for pilot colleagues.