60% of Heathrow long haul cabin crew commute from distant places in the UK and even from abroad-this is amazing, surely it cannot be correct?
I cannot comment on the car parking but 60% of the amount of cabin crew at Heathrow must be 5000+ which is a lot of parking spaces but they would not all be there at once, some would be on days off. I would have thought the biggest problem would be if they do not get on their commuting flights or thier commuting flights were disprupted and they did not turn up for work. I presume the airline insists they commute to London the day before they work and spend the night in a hotel to avoid this which must cut down on thier time off at home considerably.
If they do commute on the day they work they may have to sit around for hours before they report for work and do the same when they finish work. The flight schedules cannot always conveniently coincide with thier duties. They must leave home 5+ hours before they start work if they commute on the day of work.
A take home pay of £1600 pm is not so bad, I work with people who take home less than this and have degrees etc and are not classed as unskilled labour.
If the diff in pay is so great between the two bases one assumes Gatwick crew are not in the same TU as Heathrow crew?
A final point my next door neighbour's daughter is recent Gatwick crew and loves the variety of work, she would not go back to being a nurse for anything. Speaking to her she says she would hate having to do just short flights or just long flights which is the reason she has no desire to work at Heathrow.