Inconsistent Crewing levels have not changed which one would expect would have happened with a marked reduction in cabin service in the tourist cabins on short haul routes regardless of this current situation concerning industrial discusions if there are any.
I was a pax on a BA Airbus 319 yesterday on a 2 hour flight and there were still 5 cabin crew, 2 were serving about 6 club pax and 3 more serving a combined drinks/bevs service handing out a cookie at the same time. The toursit section of the 319 had a capacity of about 70 seats of which about 60 seats were occupied. Do they really need 3 crew for 70 pax when only a drinks service is offered in 2 hours?
The 3 of them completed the entire drinks service in well less than 15 minutes, then the they went round trying to sell tax free items which took about 10 minutes. So for well over an hour they had nothing to do. I would have thought even without the current industrial unrest they would have reduced the amount of cabin crew to suit the service requirement. 3 in toursit made the cabin over-staffed.