Sharing from a Montréal Air Canada Lead Ramp Agent. The struggle is real…if you have to travel, give yourself a few extra days…and if you don’t “need” to travel…stay home!!!
"I just got home at 6am after a 14h day including 6h of overtime. I struggle to convey in words how much chaos there is at the airport right now.
1. Last night I saw San Francisco passengers crawling through the carousel to retrieve their bags from a secured customs area because they've been waiting 4 hours for them.
2. I saw Flight Attendants walk off flights because the pilots were flying illegally after timing out, and the Flight Attendants didn't feel safe because they knew how tired the pilots were.
3. I saw Delhi leave with 100 missing meals.
4. I saw a handicapped person with no legs crawl out of a plane himself because there was no wheelchair crew.
5. We've now reached 2019 peak rush times but with only 800 ground crew staff, compared to 1200 in 2019 (and we were barely making it then)
6. I've seen dogs being left in the bulk of a cancelled flight for 2 hours.
7. One guy on my crew today almost walked into a live engine because he was new. With only 5 weeks training, he had forgot ¾ of it cause it's so condensed. The higher ups in Toronto want to make that training 5 days instead of 5 weeks.
8. We no longer wait for passengers to connect. I dispatched Frankfurt the other day with 50 missing passengers. We don't wait anymore cause it delays all the flights in the gate moving forward. So we fly with whoever is onboard.
From the bottom of my heart, tell your loved ones not to fly now. Regardless if they bring a bag or not. I saw the proposed schedule
over the next year and a half and it's enough to keep me up at night.
Anyway, for those of you travelling anyway... stay safe. Bring food and water with you. Don't ever check a bag. And if you do fly, don't connect. You'll miss it 100%.
Rant over. I'm exhausted and going to sleep cuz I only get 7.5h rest between shifts."
