Minimum Cabin Crew
 

Hi all, maybe you can help....

I Flew back to the UK with a reputable airline recently and noticed 1 crew seat unmanned near my seat. Presumably this was authorised, but got me wondering.....how many crew can you fly without? Is it related to the number of passengers or doors?

You need one over 50 seats, wether they are filled or not. Some aircraft may have a spare jump seat which is used whenever there is training being performed.

Although you need one per 50 there are certain circumstances which will allow less than this which is very rare and is used for rescue flights or to get an aircraft home. Each airline will have their own policy on this. That policy being approved by the CAA if it's a UK airline.

That makes sense- thanks !

I'm not an expert (just looked at some old course notes) but bear consider the following:

Some airlines use larger crews than the legal minimum either due to industrial agreements or to improve cabin service. Some US carriers pay (or paid) an allowance for working with a smaller (though still legal) crew than agreed with the union contract.

The FAA require additional crew for long sectors.

Some airlines will on occasions leave a cabin empty to allow operation with a smaller crew.

As already mentioned there may be additional training crew and provision is needed for them.

A member of crew may be on the flight deck for landing - but only if any jump seats are not occupied.

Hence the number of cabin crew sat in jump seats will fluctuate from day to day.

To add a little more flesh to the bones, it is important to realise that not all cabin crew are equal. The one per 50 seats rule refers to SEP (Safety and evacuation procedures) trained cabin crew. Often additional but untrained cabin crew, in SEP terms, are carried to do the hard work in the cabin. You'll not be surprised to hear they are paid less than their trained colleagues and also because they are not part of the "crew" they have no protection from any work/rest regulations. Not that any airline would ever take advantage of this.

PM

Yes. Doesn't Emirates employ a bog troll for the first class toot?