Hi Jumpseater
Thanks for the comments, yep I'm fully aware LCCs outsource, and the skill levels of the despatchers/handling agents etc. I'm the last person to criticise that side of the equation, in fact I may even be more qualified to talk about this than a lot of people on the planet
The problem is not at that end, its how the loading policies are designed, planned and communicated. a lot of LCCs use free seating, and the loadsheet flight envelope is modified to cater for that, and there's all the seat blocking issues that we know are necessary in some cases. FR for example got Boeing to design a restricted envelope which caters for their specific ops requirements, which looks good on paper (pardon the pun) but isnt necessarily as failsafe as it seems.
This is obviously more of an issue with low loads at the bottom half of the envelope on the 738, and other variants, which always has a more restrictive c of g range at low zfw. So if FR etc encourage people not to take hold baggage, and they dont seem to make a habit of carrying freight, youre always going have less of the envelope at ZFW, and consequently less margin for error. Because it also no an exact science in this instance, the stab trim is not going to be as accurate as for example allocated seating + computerised loadsheet as the indices are not so precise. It may be unrelated, but have you noticed that instances of tailscrapes seem to be creeping up?
Theres also the issue of whether all the cabin crew are fully aware of WHY seat rows need to be blocked so its rigidly enforced, though I think FR are pretty strict on that thankfully.
Thers another issue that I cant mention here yet because its a bit too sensitive and will require a fairly major commercial decision, but I'll raise it once the CAA and the LCC concerned have come up with a good solution,
So dont worry, I'm on your side here
