Aer Lingus Fleet/ Routes Discussion Pt 2 (ALL possible routes included)

Strange one and impossible to judge without the full details. At face value it seems inappropriate for the COO to make such a call over a captain, the person in command of the aircraft. However I'm not sure what operational issue, other than weight and ballance, would come into play otherwise? I wouldn't have thought it would be a problem during cruise.

It's very possible the COO overstepped the mark and that the captain wasn't justified in their original decision. The union involvement could lead to things escalating very quickly.

Crew not part of Unite or the indusctal action…

Is there a chief pilot?

Genuine question here — could there be a legitimate weight and balance issue in an empty plane if the crew sat up front?

On the face of it it seems awfully petty to tell the crew to sit in economy.

Correct - this is the core issue here.

If the Irish Times article is correct, then the crew was Manchester-based but non-union.

I agree that it's utterly inappropriate for management to send a message like that to a pilot mid-flight. I think the pilot's decision to file a safety report is absolutely justified.

That being said, IMHO telling cabin crew to sit in economy in an empty plane because they're not part of your union is at best unprofessional – especially since these are people who you will likely be working with again at some point. Nobody needs a pissing match between staff on board an aircraft.

I think the correct solution for all parties would have been to have a tea and biscuits session after landing to decide if further action is warranted.

If the company wanted the cabin crew in business class then why not ticket them as such and account for their position on the aircraft for weight and balance from the get go. My understanding was that the cabin crew were in uniform, passed through the airport in question using staff channels, they sat at their normal operating positions for take off and landing and that the loadsheet was prepared and the flight operated on this basis.

Good point, if they were entitled to business class seats from the off then surely they would have been given those seats at check in.

I’m afraid this is clearly a safety issue. Not an industrial relations issue.

From everything I've read they did not move to the business class seats. The cabin crew did what they were required to do, which was obey the instruction of the aircraft captain.

It sounds to me very much like the captain was flexing his ego, but any discussion on that point should wait until after landing rather than during flight.

The safety issue is that someone on the ground attempted to override the decision of the captain in flight.

EI Handling taking over the loading of American Airlines flights in Dublin in a couple of weeks.

How did he “weigh in”? It seems to me that he didn’t get involved. The non flying manager attempted to bring the industrial row into the flight deck mid flight by ordering the Capt to reward picket crossing cabin crew by moving them from their operating seats as per the load sheet to business class. He rightly ignored it and didn’t get involved. If that’s what the non flying manager wanted, It should have been sorted out on the ground pre departure.