More details about the new British Airways low-cost London Gatwick operation emerge

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• John T says:

  6 Nov6 November 12:42

  Any discussion of crew salaries always descends into arguments for and against minimum wage on this site!

  These roles will be attractive for some people. If you have a family and want to sleep in your own bed each night and don’t want to work 40 hours a week it could be good. Have a second job on the side if you please. The per hour rate isn’t bad and you get BA staff travel benefits to take your family off to Orlando or South Africa for your winter holidays. Overnighting in Bangkok or Bahamas might be exciting and exotic, but regularly overnighting in somewhere like Grenoble or Thessaloniki not so much.

  If you’re doing a Greek island or Cyprus return that would be an extremely long day though.

  • John says:

    6 Nov6 November 13:29

    You’d definitely need a second job to take your family to south Africa for a holiday…

    • Dev says:

      7 Nov7 November 04:54

      Lest we forget … the APD for UK originating flights makes staff travel much less attractive then before … for a family of four, your still out of pocket a minimum of £500!

      • Jonathan says:

        7 Nov7 November 07:46

        It’s £82 for each >16 year old so it would be £164 for most families flying to RSA, USA etc.

        • Jonathan says:

          7 Nov7 November 07:46

          In economy.

• Neal says:

  6 Nov6 November 13:02

  Historical not historic

• Jack Hodgson says:

  6 Nov6 November 13:53

  Nearly £20 a hour seems to be quite reasonable but very interesting to see night stops stopped for short haul will be interesting to see what routes stay at Heathrow for good or some former Heathrow routes move to Gatwick . Can’t wait to get back into the fab lounge

  • Andrew says:

    6 Nov6 November 18:53

    Nobody will be getting paid anywhere near £20 an hour.

• Lee says:

  6 Nov6 November 15:19

  One thing is for sure is that there will have been very little concession by the pilots on their salary so the cabin crew and ground staff are the ones that suffer……when have the flight crew ever cared about anybody except themselves..

  • Rob says:

    6 Nov6 November 15:28

    Pilots have lost out. Hourly pay is similar but with a very thin Winter schedule planned their total income will be down.

• Scottie says:

  6 Nov6 November 15:32

  This new product appears to be based on similar to the already tried and tested BA City Flyer business model but without any planned night stops !
  However BA City Flyer do not charge for any drinks & snacks.

• Alex Lakey says:

  6 Nov6 November 20:14

  Having flown out of LGW to St Lucia recently I thought the whole Gatwick operation was poor. Very slow check in (there was 1 person serving a Club and First class line and 3 serving all of Economy) and the airport (North terminal) is horrible. No proper lounge either, the contract lounge BA is using sucks, the food was poor and very slow to arrive. I would prefer to fly another airline from LHR than have to set foot on another BA flight from LGW. I’d start again at Gatwick and flatten what’s there, its a dump.

  • NorthernTraveller says:

    7 Nov7 November 10:53

    I would imagine that BA would be back in the South Terminal once it reopens, which I’m sure it will by next summer at the latest. Their operation there is actually pretty good and the lounge knocks the socks off the LHR equivalents.

• Lou says:

  7 Nov7 November 06:25

  I am intrigued who will apply for the Gatwick cabin crew roles. It feels like there are none of the perks of travel now, given you will most likely spend 50 minutes in a foreign country, cleaning the plane before you head back. I could see the appeal if you were going to get a few nights long haul somewhere in compensation for the low pay.

  Unless you’ve got a hobby you can fit around which you want to focus on and just get some money through the door, I don’t really know who’d go for that level of uncertainty for not very much.

  • Dubious says:

    7 Nov7 November 07:18

    I suppose it works if you want to build up some experience before moving on to another airline.

  • John T says:

    7 Nov7 November 12:55

    Some people don’t want to be away from their families many nights a month. Per hour actually worked it’s not a bad wage.

  • Ian says:

    7 Nov7 November 16:00

    I believe the number of applicants for cabin crew positions far exceeds the number of vacancies, so there must be a lot of people who want to do it for not very much money. If they can afford to and they like it, then why not!

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