CC6831 - Cabin Crew - Sales over Safety
Initial Report
Cabin Crew at {AIRPORT} have received a brief referring to inflight sales service, it details that the service must commence within 5 minutes of being released. It states gaps in sales should not exceed 15 mins between sales. It also says any bars should be closed at 15 mins before landing.
The senior manager has posted that the first sale of any flight should be within 5 minutes after being released and that any service in the cabin should continue (without trollies) until 10 minutes to landing. At 15 minutes to landing, Cabin Crew are responsible for securing the cabin and any bar service being completed at this time, will result in Cabin Crew being distracted and focusing on payment and service and potential for PAX to move or result in Cabin Crew missing things during Cabin Secure. There is also a time element here which means less time is being spent on Cabin Secure.
It appears this has concerned many Crew at {AIRPORT} as they believe our operator is breaching safety protocols and manual handling regulations as well as this it is prioritising sales over safety.
comments
Company Comment
Inflight service requirements for crew are that the service should commence 5 minutes after take-off when safe to do so. It is up to crew to determine if they can safely remove the trolley before commencing the service e.g. turbulence, other safety concerns preventing them from beginning the service. All crew are trained on manual handling techniques so that they can safely carrying out inflight service requirements and these procedures are risk assessed. Our Operations Manual SEP requirements for cabin secure includes completing the checks of the toilet and galleys at 15 minutes to landing and the cabin from 10 minutes. If crew are in the middle of a sale e.g. a passenger requests a bottle of water, this means that the crew can complete the transaction where safe to do so, it does not mean that crew should be completing an inflight service at this time. With any flight, crew should ensure they focus on SOPs and ensure cabin secure is not rushed and completed as per procedure. We would encourage crew to file a report through the safety reporting system.
CAA Comment
As part of the pre-flight briefing process the flight time should be established from the flight crew together with any other factors that may influence cabin crew in-flight duties in order to enable the SCCM to plan and monitor service activities and make any adjustments that may be necessary to ensure these are completed prior to descent and pre-landing cabin secure duties. This is particularly important where there are forecast adverse weather conditions that may result in turbulence during descent where securing of the cabin and the cabin crew themselves is the priority.
CHIRP Comment
It is for the SCCM and their crew to make their best efforts to meet sales targets however, if there is a safety reason that the SCCM has assessed on the day that means that these targets cannot be achieved regardless of service requirements, cabin crew must prioritise safety over service and ensure that any deviations from the operator’s service expectations are documented and reported back to the operator.
All cabin crew should feel empowered to report to their operators, reporting is not just down to the SCCM. Reporting that a service element has not been achieved and explaining why helps the operator build a picture of what’s actually happening online.
Manual handling techniques must be adhered to, they have been designed to minimise the risk of injury to crew.