Best Of

hey🙂

sooo i currently work in the airport - every job i’ve had since i was 17 (except for my other job atm) has been in the airport so i’ve now worked there for about 4 years altogether in different roles. i spent about a year working for a ground handling agent which involved checking in, boarding & meeting flights. although we were the ground handling agent for several airlines, i practically lived behind the check in desks of one specific airline lol, this specific airline, they have their own ground team but they are primarily there for the customer experience and just more or less oversee the process and are on hand to deal with any issues etc.

long story short, i left the ground handling agent and joined the airline so i am now just there for the customer experience side of things rather than actually checking in / boarding / meeting flights. i am lucky in terms of i’ve already had experience of being the person actually checking in / boarding / meeting the flights so i know what it’s like etc but i had my own stuff to be doing, all within a very limited time therefore didn’t have time to fully analyse the role of the airlines own staff.

during our training, all they went on about how how you’ll never be alone, you will always have another colleague with you etc and you know what? that is so not the case. i had to wait for a while on my airside pass coming through so was at check in every shift for nearly 2 months. only recently since getting my pass, i’ve been going up to the gates to board and arrivals hall to meet flights. since i worked for the ground handling agent, the whole airport has been getting done up and several changes made eg staff security completely relocated, the ramp layout all changed etc so although i know where all the gates are already for example, i don’t know where all the stands now are, just a rough idea.

the first flight i boarded was with someone really new and from a gate that the airline don’t ever really use so there was no setting up of the gate with our branded stuff so it wasn’t really a proper experience to say the least. i then went up to the gates again for a second time but the flight was already boarded more or less and i wasn’t told / shown anything. i then had an evening arrivals shift, this consists of 2 staff max and no sales desk team / management etc. night 1, i had someone else who ended up having to go and meet a passenger at the aircraft steps so i was left in the arrivals hall alone for part of it, id never ever done arrivals before, so i was so so anxious about that (and the fact there was 7 flights landing within about 30 mins, thats 156-197 people per aircraft, so a LOT). night 2, who was i on shift with? nobody, i was alone. i spent the first 2 hours literally just crying over it. i was so anxious about it to the point i ended up walking through security and not checking the aircraft stand which meant i then had to phone operations and i hate phone calls so that wasn’t ideal either. today, im on shift again, i go in to see i am down to board the first flight, but who with? oh ofc nobody, just myself. i then said to the manager (while on the verge of tears) about how im down to board alone and ive been to the gate basically once before (second time didnt really count?) and she said “you’ll be fine” and i then said “but i’ve been to the gates literally once before” which she told me again i’ll be ok, i said i disagree. she then said about taking me off it then and swapping me with another person (3 experienced people were down to board a flight together…?) so in the end, i said about heading up to gates around 7:10am to find out the manager actually took me off all the flights i was due to board and was keeping me at check in just, which is cool whatever, but how on earth can i be expected to learn anything if they either put me down alone or else remove me from the task:/

idk what to do anymore because the stress and anxiety around the idea of potentially being on shifts alone or just down to do stuff alone etc is getting too much. i don’t feel like there is anyone i can approach about it either after how it went when i tried with my manager earlier. i feel like they’re just kinda expecting me to know stuff i guess since ive worked in the airport before, but that’s really unfair as it was 2 completely different jobs i done.

this probably makes no sense because my brain is tired after a 4am start today lol but thank you for reading