Ground
grew
Author: 1062929 Bonnie
1.
Interdiction
Many people dream of becoming a
ground crew when they are a child, especially a girl. For me, it is my dream
until now. It not only can make me wear a beautiful uniform but also work at
the airport. I also love the atmosphere at the airport, because it is very
international. I can see and communicate with foreigners, find some interesting
thing between foreigners and us. I think it is interesting.
But in many people’s eye, the ground crew is not an important job, they also think that is an easy job.
Actually, they are wrong, a complete airline needs to include every department.
No one can be miss. Before ground crew starts their work, they need to arrive
at the airport two hours earlier to make a briefing. The content of briefing is
checking if today’s seat is sold out, oversold or how to assign the seat to the
passenger. Or if there is any passenger has a particular case, such as a
passenger who is vegetarian, passenger with baby, passenger who need a
wheelchair, transfer passenger, transit passenger, or cabin-baggage and so on.
They need to check those things before they start working. The work that ground
grew is very complicated, if there happen any mistake, it will affect many
things. So they all need to be cautious while checking any information.
Sometimes you need to face
difficult people, they often have much ridiculous thought or behavior. So you
need to find the solution immediately, or the passenger will out of patience.
Maybe, the unreasonable people are your superiors, because their level is
higher than you, so you can’t offend him/her.
2.
Job description
Ground crew classifies as counter
work and boarding gate work. The job that ground crew does is helping the passenger to check in, and
check if their passport is expired. You also need to remind them do not put
mobile power, lighter and scissors in their luggage, and ask them to be sure
that if their luggage past the X-ray machine. In addition, to counter service,
the ground crew also need to check is there any passenger have any help. Such
as, if there is an elder need a wheelchair, you have to get one for him/her.
3.
Advantages of being a ground crew
For those people who are new in this
society, it is a good job for them. Although the salary of ground crew is in
the median, not very high or very low, their basic salary is still each for
you. The working time is only 8.5 hours. There are also many subsidies, such as
food, transportation, and nighttime. The total of those subsidies is your real
salary. So that is very each. If working time is in the wee hours, your company
will pick you up to your home. This is very intimate for the girl if they need
to go home by themselves. The second advantage, preferential of the boarding
pass. Such as parents, husband, and child of the ground crew, they can have
some discount of the boarding pass. (But the sister and brother cannot have
this advantage). You can also have free some free boarding pass each year. (But
you still need to pay airport tax). The third advantage is the vacation. You
can have 10 days of vacation each month. When you work for a year in this
airline, the company will give you another 7 days for the bonus. Then, if you
are good at planning your schedule, you can relax yourself to travel.
4.
Disadvantages of being a ground crew
The disadvantage of the ground crew must be
shift work. The time which ground crew work classifies as morning shift, middle
shift and night shift. The time of morning shift is 3:30 or 4:15. The time of
the middle shift is 10:30, 12:00 and 14:00. And the time of night shift is
17:30, 18:30 and 20:00. You will have more than 10 days of the morning shift, 3
or 4 days of middle shift and 5 or 6 days of the night shift. So the usual lift
might be wake up at 2:30 and get to work, or just only can sleep in early in
the morning tomorrow. Lots of people can stand this because it turns night into
day. At first, many people will get sick, such as headache, catch a cold,
cough, run at the nose and even cough with some blood. So if you want to do
this job, you need to stand this system.
5.
Long-term career development
If you are tired of being a ground
crew, you can consider being a flight attendant. If your language ability is
very well it will not hard for you. But you need to adopt new life, such as
living in an airplane, the biological clock will mess up, and you also can not
get home very often. But the advantage of the flight attendant is that you can
have a little trap while you fly to another country, it can widen your vision.
6.
Who suits this job?
If a person who can stand this shift
system, it must very suit for this job. But you also need to have the basic
language ability, such as more than TOEIC 600, BULATS 45, IELTS 4.5 or TOEFL
(ITP 480/iBT 64). Also, need some experiences of booking boarding pass, or good
as searching on the internet and speaking skill of telephone. And the important
one is confidence, and passion for this job.
7. How to become a ground crew
If you want to become a ground
crew. You need to have the following qualifications.
I.
Language
ability (TOEIC 600 at less)
II.
Some
experiences of booking boarding pass
III.
Good
at communicating
IV.
The
passion for this job
V.
Confidence
8.
References:
I.
想考航空地勤看這邊:
II.
航空地勤工作內容(一):
III.
地勤到底在幹嘛:
Interviewee: Laura’s
cousin







