The four sector day, hour by hour, for the people who think short haul is the easy version
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#1 Every few weeks a long haul crew member says something on here like 'at least you are home every night' and every short haul crew member's eye twitches. So here is a four sector Gatwick day, hour by hour, for the record.
03:30 Alarm. The house is silent. You put yesterday's uniform on because you were too tired to iron and it is fine because you ironed the spare.
04:20 Car park. The shuttle is late. It is always late at 04:20.
04:55 Sign on. Briefing with a crew you have never met, safety questions, the plan for the day, which is Gatwick to Faro to Gatwick to Malaga to Gatwick. Two hundred and forty people each way, four times.
05:40 Boarding. A hen party of fourteen in matching T-shirts, three families with buggies, a man who has never flown and is holding the seat in front like a railing. The service starts before the seatbelt sign is off in your head.
07:20 Faro. Twenty five minutes on the ground. Clean the cabin yourselves, cross check, boarding again. The Faro to Gatwick is the return leg of someone else's holiday so everyone is sad and sunburnt.
10:10 Gatwick. Twenty five minutes. You eat a crew meal standing in the galley in four minutes. This is lunch.
13:00 Malaga. A delay of forty minutes on the ground for an ATC slot. Forty minutes you are not paid for. The cabin is hot, the passengers are restless, the trolley goes out twice.
16:15 Gatwick, sector four. Everyone on this flight has been in Malaga for a week and has bought a hat. The bar sells out. Two children are sick. One passenger's bag does not fit and it becomes a conversation.
17:10 Sign off. Twelve hours and fifteen minutes. Four full cabins, roughly a thousand people, one meal eaten standing up.
18:30 Home. Yes, home. And asleep on the sofa by 20:00 with the 03:30 alarm set again.
I am not saying it is harder than long haul. I am saying it is not easier. It is a different tired. Long haul crew, tell me your version, and then let us agree to stop comparing.
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#2 Long haul, fourteen years, and I did four years of short haul first. Yours is harder in the body and mine is harder in the head. That is my final answer and I will not be taking questions.
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#3 Bergamo, and I read this nodding until 'four sectors' and thought: amateur. Six. But yes, the thousand people, the standing lunch, the unpaid delay. That is the job.
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#4 Six sectors in Mexico City heat and I am still reading this with recognition. The man holding the seat in front like a railing is on every flight in every country.
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#5 Newark international, and I concede. My version is one service, one hotel, and a body that does not know what day it is. Different tired. Agreed.
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#6 @jetlagjim peace treaty signed. Both tired, differently.
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#7 Luton, and the 04:20 shuttle being late is a law of physics. I have never known it on time and I have been here three years.
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#8 Edinburgh, three weeks out of training, and the 'one meal eaten standing up in four minutes' is the part they did not put on the slides.