“Are you ok? I heard they were closing your base.
“What?!? Um….that’s news to me.
“Yeah with the new aircraft, all the people that aren’t being endorsed will have to relocate to other bases because the regional flying is going to domestic.”
In the base, or on board, there’s a lot of talking done between flight attendants about all sorts of things, but one thing that is a favourite of many a flightie to discuss is the crew-mour – i.e. crew rumours. Rumours are a staple of on-board chatter, but often they need to be seen to believed.
Mostly the talk is benign. Small talk about all sorts of things: passengers, other crew and upcoming changes being made at the airline. There’s so much chat in the world of aviation, there are even websites and forums set up especially to discuss pilot and crew rumours.
The most successful crew rumours often have an element of truth about them, or sound like they have an element of truth about them. If there’s being something officially announced in the news or internally, you can almost bet that speculation often stems from this on board and then is spouted as fact.
I can’t tell how many times I’ve heard that my airline was closing my base. No one at my own base believed it, but apparently in other Australian bases it was said as if it was fact.
What are the common crew rumours?
- If someone hasn’t been seen at work, the assumption can be that they quit or were fired. I know of a flight attendant who transferred to international but not everyone at short haul knew, so it was said that he got fired and apparently it took off.
- New routes. So much speculation about this at my airline lately, especially since a new aircraft type has been added to the fleet.
- Changes to crew hotels.
- Crew who have had who have had incidents with other crew. These may be true or not, but likely are exaggerated.
- Changes to work conditions or the the EBA (Enterprise Bargaining Agreement)
- Anything about the company that gets people excited, or annoyed. i.e. we are getting a bonus, or there is being a pay freeze.
Information is tightly held
The fact is that anyone that claims they are privy to information regarding new destinations, new aircraft, or new work conditions should be greeted with a certain degree of scepticism.
Cabin crew often claim that they were talking to pilots, a cabin manager, or even a base manager about new routes or changes coming up at the airline, as if this source gives the information more credence. While this may differ between airlines, often only a very very select few at the top are privy to news regarding changes being made and these executives are people that crew don’t have access to. When it comes to big changes, often pilots, base management and on board managers have no more information than the rest of the crew.
Usually media hear about changes to the network or any official announcements, at the same time, or before crew do.
Why do Crew Rumours Take Off ?
Because crew fly with so many different people, it’s easy for a rumour to gain credence as more and more people hear it, and it’s repeated. If so many people know about something that happened, or something that is changing, then surely it’s true right? There’s also the fact that there are always changes being made at an airline depending on factors such as profits, so people are always on the lookout for new information.
Are crew naturally gossipy?
I’d say yes and no. Galley gossip is definitely a thing. Crew are often outgoing social people who talk a lot, so in that sense there might be more gossip going on than a workforce of introverted accountants, but at the same time every workplace has its fair share of rumours so its definitely not exclusive to us. Thankfully most of the rumours on board aren’t malicious. Same thing can be said for galley gossip. Flights are long and often we have a lot of time to kill waiting to board, on transport to the hotel and on board. Talking about the airline and other crew is something that we all have in common.
When I first started flying I used to tend to believe everything I heard. That quickly went out the window as the rumours never came to pass. As with a lot of information, the truth is often somewhere in the middle of what you hear.
“We are going to start flying to Honolulu. Its not true…. But if I put it out there, it might just happen!
