Diversity of cabin crew

[Foreigner]

The article in link tells a story of so many vying for limited cabin crew positions being filled at Emirates.

Emirates jobs attract 400,000 applications a year | GulfNews.com

Looking at the many images of crew and experiencing first hand flying with Emirates, it truly looks like crew are from diverse background.

Does that make a better journey in your opinion?

Which other major airlines have cabin crew from diverse backgrounds?

 

[mannej]

Does that make a better journey in your opinion?

Which other major airlines have cabin crew from diverse backgrounds?

To answer the first question - I guess in my experience EK experiences are a mixed bag (this is solely in Y), with experiences ranging from average to exceptional.

Second question, I guess the diverse crews are a feature of the ME airlines generally.

 

[dodgeyhack]

To answer the first question - I guess in my experience EK experiences are a mixed bag (this is solely in Y), with experiences ranging from average to exceptional.

That's been my experience on EVERY EK flight. Most are average (or worse). One or two are exceptional and carry the rest.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Does that make a better journey in your opinion?

For the plane as a whole? Undoubtedly. It's always nice to have someone who speaks your language on board.

We are lucky, speaking english, that it's the international language for aviation. Asking for water or some other basic necessity it never going to be a major problem.

Does it make a better journey for me individually to have a diverse crew? No.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I flew EK BCN/DXB earlier this month and during the welcome on board announcement they advised that on that particular flight they had cabin crew from 14 countries who spoke 18 languages. The CSM was from Zimbabwe.

 

[Mattg]

I was doing a walking tour in Amsterdam a little while ago and got chatting with some of the other people on the tour. There was a guy from Australia, a lady from Germany and a lady from Uzbekistan who all said they were colleagues. I couldn't for the life of me work out where they worked, until they told me they were Emirates flight attendants on a layover.

 

[kpc]

I flew EK BCN/DXB earlier this month and during the welcome on board announcement they advised that on that particular flight they had cabin crew from 14 countries who spoke 18 languages. The CSM was from Zimbabwe.

On a EK flight last week, they announced that the crew could speak a total of 40+ languages....pretty amazing!...luckily English was one of them

 

[Alanslegal]

I flew EK BCN/DXB earlier this month and during the welcome on board announcement they advised that on that particular flight they had cabin crew from 14 countries who spoke 18 languages. The CSM was from Zimbabwe.

On a EK flight last week, they announced that the crew could speak a total of 40+ languages....pretty amazing!...luckily English was one of them

40?? Wow!!!

A while back when we flew SYD-AKL-SYD we had like 20+ languages. I have two upcoming flights with then in August so will be definitely mindful of that, and if they have 20+ languages available in First Class, that would be priceless.

 

[Foreigner]

I was surprised that communication in English was difficult on Asiana flights.

Given their extensive network, major ME (EK, QR, EY) airlines seem to proactively hire other nationalities.

SQ too but more from within Asia. Not sure of CX, US and European carriers.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I was surprised that communication in English was difficult on Asiana flights.

Given their extensive network, major ME (EK, QR, EY) airlines seem to proactively hire other nationalities.

SQ too but more from within Asia. Not sure of CX, US and European carriers.

I'm guessing the proactive hiring of other nationalities for the ME carriers is one of supply and demand. Plus local labour laws and any customs such as women working.

I think western airlines should be limited to hiring nationals from their own countries, on the terms and conditions applicable to the home country. I don't agree with hiring cheap labour or depriving nationals of a job simply because they can be sourced cheaper elsewhere.

 

[seanpodge]

I'm guessing the proactive hiring of other nationalities for the ME carriers is one of supply and demand. Plus local labour laws and any customs such as women working.

I think western airlines should be limited to hiring nationals from their own countries, on the terms and conditions applicable to the home country. I don't agree with hiring cheap labour or depriving nationals of a job simply because they can be sourced cheaper elsewhere.

I'm fine with Australian airlines, or indeed any Australian company hiring foreigners, but it should be at the same rates and conditions as they would hire Australian workers at. Stuff like how Jetstar were (still are?) able to use lower wage crew on domestic sectors should be illegal.

As for the language and diversity thing, I think it is positive overall. We tend to forget how lucky/privileged that our native language (English) is seen as the global language that everyone else has to work with. I'm sure any passengers who speak a less spoken language, like say Slovakian, would be delighted if they can get service in that language, rather than having to perhaps rely on their high school English, if that. Surely given the nature of the airline industry, being bi/multilingual could only be a positive, no matter how good one's English is.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'm fine with Australian airlines, or indeed any Australian company hiring foreigners...

I agree there are probably circumstances where this may be warranted... especially for certain skill sets. But cabin crew? I'd be surprised if there was a shortage of labour for such a sought after position. Most countries require jobs to be given to their own citizens, or those holding residency or work permits.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I agree there are probably circumstances where this may be warranted... especially for certain skill sets. But cabin crew? I'd be surprised if there was a shortage of labour for such a sought after position. Most countries require jobs to be given to their own citizens, or those holding residency or work permits.

I don't believe there is a shortage of labour within Australia that warrants foreign recruits, it's more a case of an airline being allowed to source cheaper foreign labour so why on earth would they persist in hiring Australians on higher salaries?

To be best of my knowledge, to work in Australia non-Australian citizens either must have a residency permit which allows them to work or a 457 visa. Not sure why airlines get special dispensation and not adhere to this ruling.

If foreign crews (non AU residents or citizens) are allowed to be employed by Australian based airlines and work on VH registered aircraft crewing on international flights to and from Australia, I don't know how they are allowed to be paid AUD800.00 per month which may be more than what they're paid in their home country but way less than their Australian colleagues they work alongside performing the same duties.

I'm quite certain it's not legal for Australian crew to work 21 days straight so not sure why this is okay with non-Australian crews.

 

[Isochronous]

I was surprised that communication in English was difficult on Asiana flights.

Given their extensive network, major ME (EK, QR, EY) airlines seem to proactively hire other nationalities.

SQ too but more from within Asia. Not sure of CX, US and European carriers.

CX hire from Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia a lot - but not quite as much as they used to.

 

[dajop]

I'm fine with Australian airlines, or indeed any Australian company hiring foreigners, but it should be at the same rates and conditions as they would hire Australian workers at. Stuff like how Jetstar were (still are?) able to use lower wage crew on domestic sectors should be illegal.

I think most would agree that it is geographically necessary for cabin crew to be based in Australia to serve domestic sectors, in the same way check-in staff are. Otherwise you are just "shipping" cabin crew in, and why not allow all industries to do that, a Sunday evening flight from Manila and a Friday evening flight back! It's a slippery slope.

If foreign crews (non AU residents or citizens) are allowed to be employed by Australian based airlines and work on VH registered aircraft crewing on international flights to and from Australia, I don't know how they are allowed to be paid AUD800.00 per month which may be more than what they're paid in their home country but way less than their Australian colleagues they work alongside performing the same duties.

I'm quite certain it's not legal for Australian crew to work 21 days straight so not sure why this is okay with non-Australian crews.

I have no problems with international services of Australian airlines being crewed by foreign crew, it is not necessary geographically for those workers to be based in Australia. They start their shift in AKL or BKK, for example, without the need to be shipped to Australia, and finish their shift there, so they could in theory be based in any port the airline serves. I fail to see the distinction between cabin crew and call centre staff, or for that matter back office staff performing transactional services (such as payroll, accounts payable, IT, human resources etc). These days there is not a geographic necessity for those staff to be based in the country in which the company is based and/or primarily operates. Yet they also work alongside (in a virtual sense) much higher paid (in absolute monetary terms) Australian workers. Either you allow foreign outsourcing where geographically possible, or you don't. I can't see why cabin crew are special in this regard. The only exception is if crew were consistently being paxed to/from Australia to start their operational duties, therefore this perhaps is an area that deserves monitoring.

As for the 21 days, that point is valid.

 

[zainman]

Diversity amongst cabin crew can only be a good thing right?