[bigsale]

Passengers wait 50 minutes in plane for late air steward
Passenger says the inflight announcement said the crew had overslept and was rushing down. The budget airline however says the delay was due to technical problems. -AsiaOne

According to a passenger, the inflight announcement said the Tiger Airways cabin crew had overslept and was rushing down.



A Tiger Airways flight with some 100 passengers was delayed for 50 minutes because it was waiting for a late air steward, a Chinese newspaper reported.

Passengers on TR152 - heading from Singapore to Phuket - were reportedly told during their wait on the tarmac that the crew had overslept and was making his way down, the Shin Min Daily News said on Sunday.

According to 37-year-old Ms Wang, a property agent who was travelling with her family of six, the flight on October 24 was nearly full with some 100 passengers when they boarded.

After a 15-minute wait on the tarmac, a Caucasian-sounding voice said in an inflight announcement that they were sorry for the delay, because a steward had overslept and was still making his way down.

Taken aback, Ms Wang said all she could do was continue waiting.

After another 20 minutes, a Chinese air steward in his 20s was seen hurrying up the plane, whose arrival was met by the applause of the passengers onboard. After this, the plane started moving and took off.

Ms Wang said that her brother and sister-in-law - who flew on a monthly basis - had never encountered a situation where the flight was delayed because of a late cabin crew.

She said that in the case of passengers being late, they would not be allowed to board the plane - so shouldn't cabin crew be bound by the same rules?

Tiger Airways explains

The budget carrier told Shin Min that the delay was due to technical problems and the 8.15am flight had to be delayed for 50 minutes.

Tiger Airways also said they apologised to the affected passengers onboard.

When asked later on about the allegedly late air steward being the cause of the delay, the airline’s spokesperson told Shin Min to send an email regarding the issue.

Tiger Airways subsequently replied to the email, saying it would maintain its earlier explanation given and will not be elaborating more, Shin Min said.

Source: Relax - Passengers wait 50 minutes in the plane for late air steward

[bozo]

The budget carrier told Shin Min that the delay was due to technical problems and the 8.15am flight had to be delayed for 50 minutes.

Tiger Airways also said they apologised to the affected passengers onboard.

When asked later on about the allegedly late air steward being the cause of the delay, the airline’s spokesperson told Shin Min to send an email regarding the issue.

Tiger Airways subsequently replied to the email, saying it would maintain its earlier explanation given and will not be elaborating more, Shin Min said.

Really? A cover up? I guess transparency would be a better option to choose at this stage...

[nakshire]

technical problem mah, alarm clock spoil

[eventer]

They can only use "technical issues" to cover up the fact that the air steward woke up late

If only all or most of the passengers complain about such bad service, Tiger Airways will get in deep shit....

[oOgA]

if the passengers rally or someone recorded the steward runnin late to the plane..gg

[telefone]

She said that in the case of passengers being late, they would not be allowed to board the plane - so shouldn't cabin crew be bound by the same rules?

Can't believe how stupid people can get. Obviously Tiger is a budget airline, so it should be flying with the minimal allowed number of flight attendents. How to fly if do not meet minimum safety requirements? Don't think passengers part of safety requirement for a plane to fly. Like the A320 is supposed to have a minimum of 3 flight attendents for safety reasons, SQ will over-staff its planes for its service, but I do not think Tiger does. Plane will not be able to fly with only 2 flight attendents.

Also there are many factors in play when there are not enough flight attendents, but here they say he overslept, which is very unprofessional of the crew. A sick crew may be the cause for delay (ie down with flu, don't know is it H1N1 or not) and waiting for the backup crew to wake up... cuz he just arrived very late yesterday night. Crew scheduling might not be as simple as one thinks.

if the passengers rally or someone recorded the steward runnin late to the plane..gg

Rally as in protest on the plane? If you do that, then you will be removed cuz you are a threat to the safety, after 911, passengers "misbehaving" are easily removed.

If only all or most of the passengers complain about such bad service, Tiger Airways will get in deep shit....

I didn't know Tiger is known for good service anyway, you don't take a budget airline and expect good service, you just take it cuz it is dirt cheap, so they won't lose customers because they have bad service, bad service is part of their business model.

[miracleman]

jetstar's pretty good.. can't say that u go budget airline u expect shitty service.. u don't expect sq service but need certain decent standard right?

[forest]

my goodness, this is really bizzare!

[spyboy48]

Sleepy Tiger Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............

[kyouta]

the air stewardesses should provide some in-plane entertainment

[buaya]

Originally Posted by telefone

Can't believe how stupid people can get. Obviously Tiger is a budget airline, so it should be flying with the minimal allowed number of flight attendents. How to fly if do not meet minimum safety requirements? Don't think passengers part of safety requirement for a plane to fly. Like the A320 is supposed to have a minimum of 3 flight attendents for safety reasons, SQ will over-staff its planes for its service, but I do not think Tiger does. Plane will not be able to fly with only 2 flight attendents.

Also there are many factors in play when there are not enough flight attendents, but here they say he overslept, which is very unprofessional of the crew. A sick crew may be the cause for delay (ie down with flu, don't know is it H1N1 or not) and waiting for the backup crew to wake up... cuz he just arrived very late yesterday night. Crew scheduling might not be as simple as one thinks.


Rally as in protest on the plane? If you do that, then you will be removed cuz you are a threat to the safety, after 911, passengers "misbehaving" are easily removed.


I didn't know Tiger is known for good service anyway, you don't take a budget airline and expect good service, you just take it cuz it is dirt cheap, so they won't lose customers because they have bad service, bad service is part of their business model.

Ok in short...

It's an International regulation that a min ratio of 1:50 (1 FA per 50 Pax) has to be maintained.

Plane of 200 pax need min 4 FAs. Good airline, for better service, they'll lower the ratio, thus increasing the number of FAs.

I took Garuda A330-200 recently, and there were 11 crews in total including 2 flight deck crews.

Garuda seats 222 pax in their A330-200. Meaning, average out the ratio would be 24.67 pax per FA. 1:24.67.

I believe SQ also does the same. It's quite common for full service carriers to "over-staff"

---

and yes.. agree with u that crew scheduling is not easy. It's never an easy job too.

[longsiew]

U pay for what u get...lol

[-73H_64M3R-]

LLST only. What can we do?