MY JOB JUST GOT EASIER!

By The Flying Pinto

Apr 12, 2009 Filed Under: Uncategorized

A passenger head count is required by the FAA before taxi of every commercial flight. There are a few reasons for this:

  • load planning (weight and balance)
  • in case of an accident the number of souls on board is known and can be accounted for
  • and, of course for an accurate meal count (not required by the FAA)…..are you laughing right now? What meals you say? I am proud to say my employer, a U.S. Airline still serves meals at meal times…for free: )

This head count has always been the responsibility of the Flight Attendants…..I know…I know….you’re thinking, how difficult is it to get a passenger head count? Well if you read my previous post, Flight Attendant Safety Check List you can see FAs have a lot of duties prior to door closure.The reason my job just got easier is my airline has implemented a new system for obtaining a passenger head count. The new system called, gate reader counting process is a huge time saver. Which translates to fewer delays, which translates to happy passengers….and crew! The way the new system works is the information collected at the gate is sent directly to load planning, and the gate agent gives the lead FA a computer print out with the head count and any special needs passengers may have. My only question is, “what took them so long to figure this out?” I love technology!

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7 comments

  1. Anonymous @ 2009-04-12 12:21

    Maybe not that great.

  2. Sky High Boy @ 2009-04-12 21:46

    they have this at the airline I work for. It’s so easy and it enables us to have turnarounds as quick as 20 minutes!

  3. Albert @ 2009-04-13 00:24

    Are you concerned about weight and balance in large aircraft? In small, regional jets, I have seen the FAs counting passangers and sometimes asking some passangers to relocate to the back (or front) of the airplane, but I have never seen it in larger aircrafts.

  4. ABOVE THE SKY @ 2009-04-13 02:34

    Thank you for allowing us to travel with you … Your blog is in my favorite list

  5. Aviatrix @ 2009-04-13 02:40

    And when there’s no FA the pilots have to count, and the one time I screwed up and missed someone who was short or ducked down in a seat, the extra guy was an early stage Alzheimer’s patient who was on the wrong flight and had a connecting flight on another airline.

    Fortunately he was a lovely, lovely man who had decided to travel around the world and experience as much as he could while he still could in order to see how long he could remember it. When I came and told him of the error and that I would get him to his destination, he decided to take the special attention from the lady pilot and the extra flight to connect him with his destination as all a bonus part of his adventure.

    I hope his plan worked and that he remembered all kinds of wonderful things to the end of his life.

  6. The Flying Pinto @ 2009-04-14 14:15

    SHB, I’m lovin’ it!

    Albert, yes they definitely consider weight and balance on large aircraft…..on the rare occasion I’m working a flight that is not full…I have been asked to shuffle people throughout. Not that common though: )

    ABS, Thank You!

    Aviatrix, Now that is a great story! I love that and I am sure he did remember you fondly: )

  7. Traytable @ 2009-04-23 13:43

    We have this at my airline also, but at any time a jetway is not used, we still mmust do a manual count of pax on board prior to door close. I think they call it ‘positive accountability’, and there’s all kinds of criteria for when it has to be done (distance to aircraft, if a bus is used, and so on)

    My first two airlines just had the old ‘look at the boarding card’ system, that was ok for FAs like me who were eagle-eyes with their checks, but a nightmare for the ground crew when a stray pax went out the wrong gate! :S