Cathay Flight Attendant Allocation
 

How many flight attendants does Cathay assign per flight depending on aircraft and how many to each cabin?

Interested on how Cathay is semi-understaffed on some flights, causing some slow services.

I believe that the basic regulation is that it must satisfy both at least one for every emergency exit and one for every 50 passengers.

It depends. Use long haul as an example, the 777s have 3 different configurations and the 350s have 2. I'll leave the specific numbers to others who are much more knowledgeable than me.

In regards to the (occasional) slow service, it is a combination of lack of manpower and expertise. CX did add an extra crew member for certain routes in 2024, but it is still challenging for the crew. The crew was, and is still, very green. You only need 6 months of experience in EY to work in J. Some of us here have probably spent more time interacting with the iPads than the new BCs. Most of the time, I don't think it's the newbie's fault, but more of a testament to the structural problems of CX.

Plus some questionable decisions like not utilising the middle galley for service in A359s.

I would say Cathay's BC service is mostly CC members figuring how to use the ipad. I think in all classes they're still missing some manpower, and it's just interesting to see if Cathay is runing on minimum crew

Or 50 seats? My understanding it is seats and not the number of passengers on a particular flight.
Have read of low budget airlines reducing a few seats so can have 1 less crew.

CX doesn't run anything close to minimum crew - for example, a 4 class 77W

CX: F6J53W34Y201 = 294, 13 crew (-1 since pre covid)
AA: F8J52W28Y216 = 304, 11 crew

In J, AA still manages to get the service done in significantly less time, particulairly during breakfast.

I doubt most full service airlines run on min crew or service would be horrible

Not sure why Cathay has 13 crew on 77A but last time I flew, both Y and J, service is still slow

Yes, you are correct. Apologies for my imprecision.

Also interesting comparison is QR operating these ex-CX 77Ws on DOH-HKG flights, the crew seem to be just fine executing a much more elaborated on board service in J despite having to work with half the galley space than they are used to.

On my last A359 J flight to LHR there was about the same crew compared to QR A359 nevertheless the whole service was a circus show of frantic disorganisation. Something with lack of training and/or unoptimised (or inconsistently executed) SOPs.


Yes agreed lots of pausing awkwardly next to you while they tap away figuring how to find stuff/place your order with the ipad…

On an A350 to London this week, crew seemed to be very swift and even sort of joyously proceeding through the cabin with great communication with one another. Didn't seem to be insufficient staff.

One thing I do find a bit odd in Y though is if you order a mixed drink they always have to write it down and come back much later; I haven't experienced that on other airlines but to be fair I haven't ordered a mixed drink on another carrier in awhile. Seems more of a capacity on the cart issue than staffing, but maybe it has to do with staff training too - not sure.

In Y or J? I think the service problems are more frequent in J class, what’s more important is also the crew to pax ratio per class i.e how many crews assigned to Business vs Economy etc.

In Y, but it definitely seemed swifter and better coordinated than in past Y experiences. Agree that many of the complaints I see are about J.