Airport Chaos Undercover | Dispatches | Channel 4 Documentaries

Imagine having your salary cut from over £40k to £17k, for longer hours, less holidays, worse working conditions! It's simple greed by the airlines. I bet their directors are still being paid obscenely high salaries, probably much higher than they were before. They deserve to go bankrupt. All of them. I've flown a lot, in my adult life, but because it's such a horrible experience now, I don't mind if I never fly again.

The airlines need to STOP overcrowding booking when they DO NOT have the crew to support it. GREED !!

We spoke to a Special Assistance person last June who was helping us through our airport. He commented that it was his last day of working before being made redundant. On asking if he had another job lined up, he said he had - working for a major supermarket - better hours, more pay, less travelling and staff discount from day of starting !! Good move, in my opinion !

I love how companies fired their experienced staff over the pandemic. Then cried and tried to bring them back with a worse contract. I dont blame the staff for not wanting to go back. They got a better payed job doing 9-5 then any Airline job. They struggled then crying out for staff. Its hilarious.

£9.65p an hour? There's your problem, right there! 🙄

We need more of these documentaries to show people what’s happening..well done to the team..

Companies don't want to employ people, thats the issue, profit over people.

As a former Heathrow worker I can assure you that the biggest problem in air travel is how it's been fractured into thousands of ultra-specific private entities who are all seeking ever-increasing profits. They take a process that should be smooth and integrated and hack it into a million steps that they can charge for each stage of. They bully and bluster away their competitors (even though they're all working towards the same goal) and carve out little fiefdoms over which they have complete control, and steadfastly refuse to communicate with the other petty corporate fiefdoms scattered across the airport unless it's done in some executive lounge in a city hundreds, if not thousands of miles away, days or weeks later. They constantly scrap and backbite at each other, many having more people working in their accounting and legal departments working out how to shunt fines and penalties onto their rival corporate fiefdoms than they do addressing and fixing the problems. Although the airlines and their orbiting corporations like to give the impression that they're all working together as a smooth, well oiled machine, the reality is that behind the scenes their all just constantly squabbling children, and they don't give a shit who suffers providing it isn't their fiefdom's bottom line. Oh, and they'll lie shamelessly and constantly. They know due to 'security restrictions' that they never, ever have to tell you any information you could actually verify, so they'll just lie to you, each other, the media, the Government, everyone, over and over, again and again. As a passenger, you're but a casualty of attrition in never ending spats between pathetic petty corporate fiefdoms trying to eek mere pennies more out of every time one of their staff so much as twitches.

I’m an aircraft cleaner and have been for just over six months now and I hybridised into ramp staff to help them out when I could. But the shortness of staff was truly insane during summer. I have so many stories about that time that many might not believe me. For example at one point during a hugely busy afternoon with planes taking off every few minutes there were only three Swissport aircraft cleaners in the entire airport in Bristol. And the other two were needed for the water and lavatory truck services so I ended up running from one aircraft to another doing everything that I could to get the essential cleaning tasks done. I was soaking with sweat and getting increasingly tired and out of breath as I literally ran between aircraft. And eventually I ended up trembling with exhaustion and utterly out of breath at the bottom of the aircraft steps of the second last plane that I needed to clean and I was unable to move. Fortunately I didn’t take too long long to recover my breath and drink some water then finish the final two aircraft for that afternoon. On both planes the flight attendants expressed concern over my physical condition and supplied me with fresh water bottles. But the truly most insane moment came just as I finished the forward galley, the captain came out of the cockpit looking a bit harried himself. He basically pleaded to allow the pax to start boarding while I finished up my tasks. I thought about it a moment and said that if they start boarding the pax using the forward door then I would have time to do the essentials at the back before they reached me and I could slip out quietly at the back and let the flight attendants know so then both doors could be used. I still occasionally wonder exactly how much pressure he was under to first bend the rules about all the cleaners needing to be off the aircraft before the flight attendants do their security checks then let the pax start boarding. Utter madness. But the plan worked and I finished the essential tasks to clean just as the rows at the emergency exits at the wings were filling. I grabbed my stuff and slipped out then waited under the horizontal stabiliser to be picked up by my supervisor once he’d finished his duties. And yeah I’d barely put my stuff down before pax were being sent up the back steps. And I still wonder why he asked my permission-he way outranked me and could have just ordered it anyway. Regardless I was glad to help. Then there were the two night shifts alone but that’s a story for another day.

Cabin Crew here: laid off for 2 years, had to ask social services for money during the time as the airline did not pay me anything. In those 2 years, 400-500 people resigned as they saw no return to work for offered salary. Starting gross salary with zero experience in the Northern Europe was; 1074 eur! With 6 years flying experience gross was 1836 eur. Some places raised the minimal pay, meanwhile others (many of so called legacy airlines) are making the conditions worse. My airline tried to cut off the extras like daily allowance and overtime (paid in case of delays or extended duties). At the end, Court ordered to pay the allowances ( yes Airline needed to be brought to Court to fix the problem). Bosses are still working hard on getting that overtime cut from the extra salary. Needless to say that overtime comes from delays, where your work days gets extended from 7 to12 hours or from 11 to 15 hrs. And sadly on those delays you also become a punching bag for frustrated costumers. Alternative to decrease of salary, is being fired... My gross is approx 28k this year, my boss's 1,2 mil. And I am working 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, 31 December also 1 and 2 January, and well.... offices will be closed on most of those days. It's not just passengers being fed up, as seen in documentary; we're all getting tired.

Deeply shocked by the poor pay and hostile treatment of pilots, CAs, and ground staff on the part of the carriers. These people are the fundamental units in ensuring passengers’ safety and how they are treated reflects a lot on the mindset and culture of the airlines.

Thank you channel 4 for making these documentaries available.

Most employers dont really care about their staff and think they can be replaced, not caring how it effects their lives, by anyone.

I love all 'airport' stories and have always been on-side with the staff. My suggestion was always to the passengers to 1. check their tickets 2. Get to the airport sooner than expected 3. Make sure they have all the required documents 4. Medical conditions affected with delays and increasing medications needed. . etc etc etc... After watching this program I feel more inclined for airlines to clean up their act to avoid these unnecessary delays.

"Wasn't prepared for the volume of people" No...THIS is what happens when you don't respect or value your staff enough, for the work they do and think they are disposable, and think you will be able to replace/ rehire them easily. Don't fire your ground staff (the literal people who keep your industry moving) when a pandemic hits because you don't want to pay them or facilitate them being able to claim furlough, then seem surprised or shocked when not everyone is willing to come back after a year of unemployment, that they had no choice or say in, and work for an employer who showed little compassion or concern when making mass numbers redundant with no safety net. The stress these workers are put under even before the pandemic was ridiculous and for only a tad over min wage! JOKE! but post pandemic...its diabolical!! When you do have enough staff to do the required job standards and security measures slip and in the aviation industry this can have horrendous consequences - Prime example in NO WAY should passengers be able to stick their heads through to the baggage handing area Oh surprise surprise blame the cleaners for the delay... the usual scapegoats, the lowest peg on the pole that is abused and taken the for granted at every stage. Despite having one of the most important jobs as its not just "cleaning" that they do, It's meant to be secure search and clean of the aircraft, as stated in their contracts and training - that is also dictated by the CAA! but is ignored and belittled but the aircraft providers at every turn. OH FANTASTIC making fatigued pilots fly planes... seems like the safest option, what could go wrong... opens another tab to put on air crash investigations Our Easy jet return flight from Pairs was delayed back in June and the way they rushed and shoved us onto the plane once it landed and we zoomed down the runway in order to keep the delay under the "allowed" delay time so they didn't have to compensate us was honestly comical, I didn't help that my sister was on crutches and couldn't move fast/ easily but no one seemed to care. Then when we landed we waited over an hour for luggage to come out which increased our parking fee.

I would have a panic attack waiting in that line!

Make CEOs personally liable for forcing staff to work outside rostered hours....Including cancellations etc.

This confirms my decision not to fly until the airports and flight companies have got their act together. I'm guessing it will be 2-3 years til things may improve

The French ATC are ALWAYS on strike. This often means re-routing flights to avoid French airspace. I notice the researchers didn't bother to mention this.....

25 years ago a baggage handler would have been a respectable career which allowed one to have a family, own a house, and drive a brand new car. Now it’s a poverty job which barely puts you above the breadline. It’s a microcosm of everything that’s gone wrong in this dump of a country.