Aer Lingus - 6

[Just a spotter]

DB

while I agree with some of your post, why would an airline ramp up CC numbers to cope with occasional events?

T/A services may very well be purchased on a different basis to European short haul, but price is still a factor for passengers as is maximising the long term profitability of the route to the airline.

I haven't flow EI T/A since 2006 (I haven't flown anyone T/A since 2006) but generally on all long haul (not just EI) I do recall noticing the amount of time CC seemed to spend not involved in any visible service related task. Outside of the tasks related to the meal and shopping services, they do appeared to sit around at the back of the cabin chatting. Now, there's nothing wrong with that and I'm not suggesting staff don't deserve a break, but on an aircraft (just like the aircraft itself), if they're not generating revenue then they're a cost (in essence, for the proportion of the flight that CC are not active then from an accounting perspective they could be viewed as Pax/weight that the airline is paying for).

I know that might sound harsh and it's not intended to, merely to point out that from a process analysis and "bean counter" perspective, that's how you'd view the crewing arrangement. For a business deciding to sell on price it's simple, reduce the cost, improve the margin and/or give yourself room to cut fares.

Management assess whether the product on offer would be improved by one additional crew member ... if so, how many more Pax will it attract and/or how much more would each Pax be prepared to pay for that marginal increase .. .and if you do it what are the cost implication? If there's no demonstrable benefit to the bottom line, then why do it?

JAS