Gate agents: the biggest victims of airline cutbacks?
Like Internal Revenue Service agents and Department of Motor vehicle employees, everyone loves to hate airline gate agents. That now includes their bosses.
Consider that corporate bean counters have reduced airport employee headcount so that what used to take three people now must be done by, in many cases, one. Wages are down, too.
But I’ll bet the bigwigs couldn’t do that job if you held a gun to their heads. Nor would they want to, for what they’re paying them.
We’ve all heard about the angry mobs caused by delayed, canceled or oversold flights — decisions often made by Mother Nature or by some pencil-pusher thousands of miles away.
Yes, something called the Severe Weather Avoidance Program allows those airline Operations Control Center pencil-pushers to collaborate between airlines and with the Federal Aviation Administration to pick which flights to trim from airspace during severe weather, so Mother Nature isn’t always the only culprit when your flight gets canceled or delayed due to that thunderstorm over New York.
Those scenarios aside, even on a clear weather, smooth sailing sort of day, gate agents have a lot to do while maintaining their composure, helping you, collecting tickets, making announcements and getting the flight out on-time.
Not all of them click their ruby heels and do cartwheels. That’s a fact. But here’s a partial list, collected from my observations over the two decades I spent in the airline industry. These tasks have to be simultaneously accomplished in about 30 minutes or less:
1. Receive the inbound aircraft, park the jet bridge without damaging the aircraft, deplane the customers, help those in wheelchairs, hand-off unaccompanied minors and provide connecting gate information.
2. Answer a million questions, a lot of them repeatedly, ranging from the location of the airport bathroom to the weather conditions in Louisville. How many times do you think US Airways agents will be asked “Do I have to pay for a soda” today, even though its new $2-for-a-Coke policy doesn’t go into effect until August 1?
3. Provide the crew with the latest weather information for the departing airspace, route of flight, fuel onboard, any hazardous materials or human remains being shipped in cargo, and various other things the pilots need to know to operate the flight safely.
4. Provide the flight attendants with a manifest of the customers onboard so they can identify elite and first class customers by name or tell who ordered the special meals (in the unlikely event food is served).
5. Verify that catering has visited the airplane and that supplies are loaded in accordance with the scheduled service planned for the flight.
6. Take care of all the unaccompanied minors and wheelchair customers, sometimes taking them to the bathroom or to buy a snack or magazine (even though the law governing the rights of disabled customers currently says the agent doesn’t have to). Make sure these customers are pre-boarded, assisted into their seat, carry-on baggage is stowed and the necessary sign-offs are obtained from the flight attendants.
7. Scan the gate area for oversized carry-on luggage so it can be checked prior to departure to prevent last-minute delays. Hand write gate-check baggage tags for any strollers or car seats and position them at the end of the jet bridge so ramp agents can load them in the cargo bin.
8. Manage the standby list and clear passengers desiring seats on the flight so that they can get onboard and get settled before an on-time gate pushback.
9. Reconcile the count of customers with the number of tickets collected and provide that information to the crew and flight dispatch so that they can correctly calculate the weight and balance of the aircraft for a safe takeoff.
10. Close the aircraft door and safely remove the jet bridge without damaging the aircraft.
The next time you witness an airline gate agent feverishly pecking away at his or her computer terminal, I hope you’ll remember this list and cut them a little slack.
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4 Responses to “Gate agents: the biggest victims of airline cutbacks?”
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Add one more job for the gate agents: enforcing carry-on luggage rules.
It’s going to get ugly.
And will gate agents have to collect $15.00 (or $25 for a second bag) if a bag has to be gate-checked at the last moment?
Production workers who have to work harder for longer hours, lower wages and more stress to produce more with less in order to make a living in a commodity industry. Sounds like a capitalist society job to me.
I am not an aviation expert (I am an experiential travel retailer), but wouldn’t the airline industry, as a whole, qualify as a safely executed commodity product now - flying seats with cushions moved by jet fuel? Yes I realize there is sophisticated technology that functions behind the scenes to make it all run smooth, but essentially it is public and private flying-bus transport system that effeciently and effectively carries hundreds of millions of passengers safely between big fancy bus depots with lots of concrete.
On the service labor side of this capitalist equation, that means commodity-driven wages and known basic skillsets that do not require a PhD to execute. High school grad…great, grab this keyboard and print that manifest…grab that joystick and roll that jetway….and so on.
If people expect more (like excellent customer service, friendly demeanors, safety perfection, front-line critical thinking and problem solving skills, etc.) from a run down, investment challenged public transport commodity in the sky, then maybe their expectations are just too high.
Maybe it’s time for an industry transformation? And industry head-deflating. Like every public transport commodity…highways, railroads, etc. aviation suffers from decades of disinvestment and capitalist neglect/distraction. No money to invest in plant and equipment, human talent and intellectual property…? Then expect crumbly bits and rusty infrastructure…like collapsing brdiges and potholed roads.
Maybe we ought to rename the U.S aviation industry the U.S. Hit-or-Miss-Terror-Resistant Public Flying Bus System and that will re-align people’s expectations. Most buses I have ever been on (and it ain’t many) don’t have free (or for purchase) sodas, or pretzels, or blankets or anything. You get a seat and a ride. And maybe a friendly driver. Hopefully security from a catastrophic attack?
So, being a gate agent, or pilot, or flight attendant means being a more sophisticated “bus company” employee who is part of the commodity-driven capitalist equation of mass transport, travel and tourism. Get used to it, Don’t like it…quit and get a new job, or upgrade your education and move on.
There is no rule in commodity capitalism that says you have to do things with excellence, benevolence, friendliness or food-as-love. You just have to collect fares, fill the gas tanks, sweep the bus floor and keep ‘em running. I think we bus riders have raised the airlines to some heightened status as magic purveyors in the sky.
Hogwash. Folks, it’s a big bus system that just happens to fly. Bring your own soda and blanket if you want comfort and joy while riding the bus. That’s what I tell my clients.
Alan Fiermonte
Adventure Travel Consultant
I find Alan Fiermonte’s comments to be cold, callous and condescending. Perhaps being a gate agent isn’t in the same league with being a pilot - but then neither is being an “Adventure Travel Consultant”. Until the CEOs take stock of their own roles versus those on the front lines, and take the according pay cuts - then gate agents and ramp agents should be allowed to make a living wage. $9 an hour is NOT a living wage, and for all the flack they put up with, neither is $18. Unions have caved in, despite the continuing lofty paychecks doled out to upper management.
Think of all the gas an airline could buy if the top-tier management pay was to be reduced by 80%! (Imagine $400,000 per year instead of $2M - poor babies!)