The sad fact of the matter is - at the moment with 7 crew on the 767, short international sectors, the service sometimes doesnt even get finished. If there is a medical, the service has to stop completely. With 8 crew there was always the galley operator to take care of medicals/ out-of-the-ordinary stuff. But now the whole plane suffers when something out of the blue happens.
I would hate to think what would happen when it goes down to 6, and I have no doubt it will. Both
VB and QF will pressure CASA into this.
BA may have the 1:50 ratio as law - but they still operate 9 or 10 cabin crew on the 767 (depending on sector time).
And as for safety, it goes further than just evacuating. Unruely pax? less crew = less response. Less crew means less monitoring of pax, for example alcohol consumption etc. It's already showing with the current crew reductions to CASA mins.
It really is a joke.
