Memoirs from the Orange Army

"We need you for a duty"

*AUTHORS NOTE* - This chapter is in dedication to those who work behind the scenes everyday compiling thousands of rosters from tens of thousands of flights each month. They are the unsung heroes of the airline setting up the framework of our business in order to make it legal and successful. I hope you enjoy this chapter, this book is now beginning the process of publication where hopefully the publishers will take it on and make it the success on paper as I hope it to be. Nonetheless I certainly couldn't have made it this far without the support of all of you!

Love always

Joey S

x

Somewhere, in the deepest and darkest depths of Luton, lies a sleepy little airport... Luton Airport. It is home to what is most likely the biggest orange spectacle on the planet. Hangar 89 is the headquarters of easyJet situated in a hangar that has been painted a fiery orange with the easyJet brand slapped across the roof for all to see when arriving into Luton. I'm also wondering whether it would be visible from space as it is that bright. It also has an orange double decker bus permanently attached to the building as a remnant of part of their 20th birthday celebrations which further adds to the flamboyant history of the airline that Sir Stelios had lovingly created all those years ago. Inside is the core of the successful airline in a giant open-plan office where the entire airline is managed from hundreds of computer screens and a plethora of data.

As you venture further into the office, you'll find the rostering team which is comprised of Roster Planning, Roster Delivery and lastly the Crewing Officers. They are solely responsible for assorting all of the planned flight schedules, months in advance, into single monthly rosters for each individual crew member and pilot. They liaise with other departments such as Training Delivery and the Fatigue Management Teams to ensure the entire operation is handled smoothly and efficiently. They handle around fifteen thousand rosters every month with the help of a Canadian company.

This Canadian company receive our flight schedules and place them into a matrix to assort the flights onto individual rosters. Once they have completed their work, all of the rosters are delivered back to easyJet HQ where the Rostering department look at each roster individually. Each one is throughly checked and re-jigged to ensure they comply with the many regulations that rule our industry such as EASA (the European Aviation Standards Agency) and ICAO which is the global aviation authority. These regulations are a minefield created to protect employees and employers from a plethora of circumstances and ensure rights and laws are protected. Rostering Delivery also need to consult Fatigue Management to ensure each roster is not breaching Flight Duty Period (FDP) times, especially when it comes to pairing flights together as four sector day (four flights).

As you can expect, a small percentage of rosters slip through the net and will flag up violations when rosters are published. This means that depending on the timescale, the Rostering Delivery team need to look at that individual's roster and try to align it with current guidelines by swapping some flights with other individuals. These changes are usually changed at least a week in advance where it is operationally possible. If this is not possible, it is passed onto the Crewing Officers. In the middle of this, the Training Delivery team will also liaise with Rostering Delivery in order to ensure that all employees remain current with their regular training and updates. This also means having to liaise with hotel operators in order to book accommodations for the employees based overseas as well as working with the Flight Booking Team to safely and efficiently transport our overseas employees to the UK for their annual/bi-annual training.

In the shorter term, things inevitably go wrong on our day to day operation. There are many situations such as national air traffic control strikes, dogs on the runway, bird strikes and aircraft faults which can drastically alter the daily operation planned for our airline. There are an incredible amount of factors that change our rosters on an almost daily basis, especially during the summer months when we are running a full capacity schedule in order to accommodate as many of our customers as possible. Our Crewing Officers are a surprisingly small group who man the desks answering phone calls from flight crew and pilots over an array on situations. They ensure the crew have enough minimum rest for their duty the following day as well as ensuring they have enough crew capacity for a smooth operation the next day. They liaise with every inch of the airline using whatever resources the airline have to ensure delays are kept to a minimum whilst listening to us reel off our woes and complaints. Our entire network is looked after on a daily basis of six teams of two people who answer all the calls relating to each base/country. They work twenty four hours a day, seven days a week including all major holidays such as Christmas. There is no such thing as a day off for them, if the airline is flying then they are necessary in order to be ready to provide assistance on every phone call.

Crewing Officers are the backbone of the operation, managing an incredible workload and delegating to an assortment of teams across the hangar. They are the ones who send messages to our customers and crew when possible about delays or a lack of food/fresh options and anything else the crew may hand over to them. They are the modern day angels who will manage our rosters for us when we call in sick or fatigued and won't even question the reason why. They also negotiate slot delay times with international air traffic control centres and create new flights at the drop of a hat. They look after us whilst doing 12 hour shifts, listening to our incessant complaints and queries without even asking for any recognition or a simple thank you. I too am guilty of taking these people in the Hangar for granted without realising how much they deal with and I admit I feel a sense of shame in doing so. They are such an integral cog in the ever-expanding easyJet machine and we wouldn't survive as an airline without their dedication and unwavering help each day.

There are many times we dread to hear from them such as when we are on standby, whether at home or at the airport, and we hear the dreaded words "we need you for a duty" knowing we shouldn't have made those plans for lunch/dinner. We never thank them for arranging everything else they do for us and ensuring our day goes as smoothly as possible. As soon as our problem is resolved, we forget about that small team of people tucked away in a hangar in Luton who keep this airline to be the success we know and love today. They embody the spirit of easyJet every single day and yet to our customers and crew, nobody knows who they are and exactly just how important they are to our survival. I can quite honestly say that they are the true performers, the ones who not only deal with our customers but with us as crew. They deserve our recognition, gratitude and our deepest applause for keeping our airline a safe and enjoyable environment for our crew and customers.

"It was only after her death that I realised who she was: the apparently magical force at the centre of our family who'd kept us all invisibly spinning in the powerful orbit around her"

- Cheryl Strayed