Originally Posted by
Pax Vobiscum
Hi FBW
It is a very old joke - I'm sure if Il Papa ever relocates the head office back to Avignon, we'll be making the same joke about Air France!
I'm intrigued to learn that AZ CC hold a CAA licence - how does this differ from the position in the UK? I'd imagined (probably incorrectly) that international regulations would require similar standards for CC the world only.
Hellooooooo!!!
I did understand it was a joke
we even say it ourselves in Italy
Right...imagine the UK CAA. Imagine all the airlines G registered. In the UK every airline has to comply with CAA regulations for its operations, however: they train the cabin crew following the CAA guidelines (and covering the mandatory subjects) but it's the company itself who examines its own cabin crew. This results in incredible differences between airline trainings, exams porcedures and, ultimately, quality of the cabin crew safety knowledge. I worked for another airline in the UK before joining BA and I can say that the difference between the training of the two (initial, recurrent etc) and the safety culture amongst crew is huge!!
What happens in Italy (France, Spain I think are very similar) is: all airlines
must prepare their crew to the same safety standards in order to obtain a unique crew licence. Cabin crew do a very hard ground course and must fly for a minimum of 100hrs in a "supernumerary" position (if they are lucky-I ended up doing over 300!) before their airline takes them to the CAA headquaters to take an official exam. Crew are then examined by CAA officials whom they have never met before. If they are successful they get an official licence, which is compulsory for working as a cabin crew. If they are not, the CAA reserves the right to accept the individual at a later date for a retake or to refuse them any further possibilities.
They are very strict, but it is necessary to obtain clear and common standards for all airlines.
Once the crew memeber has obtained the licence doesn't need to undertake these exams anymore when they change airline. The new airline only has to train the individual for their customer service procedures and for their SOPs together with aircraft conversions where appropriate. This is because one airline's initial training is recognised by all the other airlines and a licence is the proof that the crew has the appripriate knowledge.
I know for a fact that they are trying to do something like this in the UK too - however talks are ongoing as they have to decide what to do with the people who are already working as CC. I fear that some of these people would not pass such strict examinations, and neither would it be fair in some cases. We'll see what happens, but I am 100% for a UK licence, it would make life much easier for crew who want to change employer and would make me a happier pax when I fly with other airlines!!!
Sorry for the long reply!!!
ciao
FBW