Airline cabin crew have a multi-faceted job and as aircraft become more sophisticated, crew training is following suit, as Bernie Baldwin reports.
While many see primarily the service to passengers that cabin crew provide, it is safety that always comes first in their role. This has probably been appreciated more during the Covid-19 pandemic as crew have enforced the wearing of masks onboard aircraft.
However, cabin crew must not only train in safety procedures, they must train to use the increasing variety of cabin systems in modern aircraft which aid the passenger experience.
Before that, though, airlines have another challenge relating to cabin crew. Even as the industry moves into a post-pandemic period, airlines still have many aircraft on order, so before training on sophisticated systems can begin, the task is to ensure that the cabin crew ‘pool’ meets the demand.
Ivan Noel, president and founder of the Inflight Institute, admits that attracting people into the aviation field has become more of a challenge. “With the changes in our world, many people believe that such a career is unattainable or unsustainable,” he observes. “Historically, one of the most significant challenges for the training of cabin crew is the sometimes-considerable failure rate and amount of time it takes to get someone from the street to the aircraft jump seat. With the further acceptance of online learning, more and more airlines are coming to the Inflight Institute to implement our pre-qualification programme developed in 1999.
“For more than 20 years, the Inflight Institute has provided our member airlines with access to our vast pool of dedicated and knowledgeable cabin crew candidates. These candidates have been through extensive online learning before ever arriving at an airline’s ground school,” Noel explains. “By accessing these pre-qualified candidates, our member airlines reduce their training time by half and candidates who came through the Institute have a much greater success rate.”
Hajati Treacher-Morely, head of cabin crew training at Skyborne Airline Academy, notes that during Covid-19 lockdowns, large numbers of cabin crew staff took voluntary or compulsory redundancy as airlines sought to slim down their workforce, and revise staff contracts to help them weather the post-pandemic period.
“Many cabin crew members were furloughed or placed into a ‘holding pool’ to be called upon when aviation began to show signs of recovery,” she recalls. “Today, with the recent reduction in travel red lists and the lifting of many testing requirements, airlines are seeing a resurgence of interest in travel. Carriers such as British Airways, for example, have even announced the return of the A380 fleet from December 2021. These moves bode well for the future health of the cabin crew industry, and there will be a strong demand for new cabin crew recruits.
“At Skyborne, we believe the appeal of international travel is still strong for young people and airlines are keen to source cabin crew post-pandemic that are passionate, keen to see the world, and have existing customer service experience,” Treacher-Morely adds. “We also expect to see the widespread introduction of seasonal contracts to help airlines manage cabin crew staffing levels in the long term.”
As noted, cabin crew work increasingly employs IT systems – and that includes technology helping the crew in their prime role of safety. Treacher-Morely elaborates on how the training has evolved as increased digitalisation has been introduced.
“Technology and digitisation serve to enrich the safety procedures that are drilled into the memory of every cabin crew professional,” she emphasises. “Today’s staff can reference from electronic safety manuals provided on onboard smartphones or tablets and check Standard Operating Procedures in flight at the touch of a button. If a medical report needs to be filed, it can be sent immediately using inflight Wi-Fi from an onboard iPad.
“Moreover, on larger aircraft such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, cabin crew can report electronically any technical issues such as defects in ovens or lighting, meaning an engineer is standing ready to fix the issue the moment the aircraft comes into land. Technology makes these processes seamless,” Treacher-Morely asserts.
The progress of digital transformation in the cabin has been at the core of the Inflight Institute’s mission for more than 20 years, according to Noel. “Since 1999, the Institute and its founding company, Inflight Innovations Inc, have been at the forefront of digital advancements. We recognised that ‘this internet thing’ might be around for a while, and we got to work designing one of the first regulator compliant Learning Management System (LMS) to receive regulatory approval,” he reports.
“This evolution and digitalisation led us to today with our Integrated Learning Cycle. This competency-based learning approach uses data points from learning, skills evaluation and performance to identify where to focus training plans for individuals and groups,” Noel continues. “Tracking, understanding, and actioning training protocols based on the data from key indicators provides a framework to improve safety, allowing airlines to virtually assess performance not only on the ground but in the air too.”
Similarly, of course, flight attendants must train to use the variety of cabin systems in modern aircraft designed to deliver a positive experience for passengers, such as cabin environment systems, e-commerce systems for onboard sales and so on. Increasing the levels of sophistication in these systems can change the way in which cabin crew are trained.
“Modern aircraft manufacturers, in my experience, have done a fantastic job in developing interfaces to be as user-friendly as possible,” Noel remarks. “With such interfaces, the Inflight Institute has assisted our member airlines in developing ‘no-harm’ learning models, whereby the learner can freely explore and learn the procedures from the comfort of their own home, without the fear of consequential error.
“The need to adapt to ever-changing technology is vital to balancing the cost of training with its effectiveness. All too often, massive investments are made in training technology with a very small window of viability,” Noel comments.
At Skyborne Airline Academy, appreciation of the digitalisation of service systems is evident. “The passenger experience is key to every cabin crew member, and technology has made it easier to ensure that travellers have a great flight experience,” Treacher-Morely confirms. “The introduction of electronic passenger information lists (EPILs) gives crew members real-time information on seat assignments, meal preferences, loyalty programme members and special service requests (SSRs).
“Senior cabin crew managers can also use onboard data to see if a passenger has recently experienced a flight delay or missed out on their meal of choice, so they can make their next flight more enjoyable. E-commerce systems equally resolve the difficulty of carrying multiple currencies for cabin crew and passengers during onboard sales, matching the shopping experience on the ground.
“Rectifying an issue is also easier with technology,” she continues. “If an inflight entertainment system is faulty, for example, cabin crew can use the onboard iPad to refund a fare or provide a voucher for the passenger while they are in the air, mitigating the need for paper forms and a delayed customer service response.
“At Skyborne, technology is a key part of our Cabin Crew Attestation (CCA) course, enabling our trainees to start their airline-specific training ready to adapt to inflight procedures,” Treacher-Morely declares. “It’s also been really encouraging to see how much training packages have developed for cabin crew over the last 20 years, recognising the different ways in which young people learn. Courses are now a mixture of visual, audio and kinaesthetic experiences, with highly realistic training drills and interactive sessions. E-learning packages also ensure that the lessons taught in the classroom can also be revised and refreshed from home at any time.”
Broadening training, making it more efficient, adapting to the ways in which candidates accept and process information – these and many more benefits are being seen every day as the digitalisation of cabin crew training progresses. It’s a win for each candidate in their career and a win for each airline in their service levels and brand values. Ultimately though, it is also a win for that paramount aviation requirement – safety.
Author: Bernie Baldwin
Published: 27th January 2022
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