So a couple of days ago, I flew on a newly configured B6 A321, full flight with 200 passengers.
However I am certain there were only 3 flight attendants. They were very overwhelmed, and unable to accomplish any of the basic service tasks like coming around to pick up trash, offer water etc.
Aren't there supposed to be 4 FAs if there are 200 passengers?
Cheers!

JFK31R wrote:

So a couple of days ago, I flew on a newly configured B6 A321, full flight with 200 passengers.
However I am certain there were only 3 flight attendants. They were very overwhelmed, and unable to accomplish any of the basic service tasks like coming around to pick up trash, offer water etc.
Aren't there supposed to be 4 FAs if there are 200 passengers?
Cheers!

In the U.S., 1 flight attendant is required for every 50 passengers seats. So 4 f.a.s would be required for 151-200 seats.

Regulations says within 90 seconds all passengers should be able to evacuate using half of the doors(4).So minimum 4 cabin crew required to assist them.

Thanks

That’s strange. B6 typically has at least 5 FA’s on their a321s regardless of configuration. Did you mean 3 cabin crew serving the aisle? Or just 3 total? Because there could be more working the galley positions.

There should be a minimum of 1 F/A per 50 seats. This reminds me of an incident at Czech Airlines many years ago, when a scheduled 735 was swapped for a 734 last minute, with no member of crew noticing and thus, flying a flight with less F/As than required.

Loew wrote:

There should be a minimum of 1 F/A per 50 seats. This reminds me of an incident at Czech Airlines many years ago, when a scheduled 735 was swapped for a 734 last minute, with no member of crew noticing and thus, flying a flight with less F/As than required.

Who exactly has imposed such a rule and why?

I think that many countries require that in a single aisle airliner there is a trained flight attendant for every pair of exit doors, no matter how many seats or passengers there are.
Of course, for the type approval, there are limits for the seats per exit doors, which also depend on the exit capacity of the door, i.e. everybody must be able to escape in 90 s via half of the doors.

YIMBY wrote:

Loew wrote:

There should be a minimum of 1 F/A per 50 seats. This reminds me of an incident at Czech Airlines many years ago, when a scheduled 735 was swapped for a 734 last minute, with no member of crew noticing and thus, flying a flight with less F/As than required.

Who exactly has imposed such a rule and why?

I think that many countries require that in a single aisle airliner there is a trained flight attendant for every pair of exit doors, no matter how many seats or passengers there are.
Of course, for the type approval, there are limits for the seats per exit doors, which also depend on the exit capacity of the door, i.e. everybody must be able to escape in 90 s via half of the doors.

I've only ever had 1x F/A in the ATR 42, and we have 2 sets of emergency exits for the passengers. Thats in an EU country.

VSMUT wrote:

YIMBY wrote:

Loew wrote:

There should be a minimum of 1 F/A per 50 seats. This reminds me of an incident at Czech Airlines many years ago, when a scheduled 735 was swapped for a 734 last minute, with no member of crew noticing and thus, flying a flight with less F/As than required.

Who exactly has imposed such a rule and why?

I think that many countries require that in a single aisle airliner there is a trained flight attendant for every pair of exit doors, no matter how many seats or passengers there are.
Of course, for the type approval, there are limits for the seats per exit doors, which also depend on the exit capacity of the door, i.e. everybody must be able to escape in 90 s via half of the doors.

I've only ever had 1x F/A in the ATR 42, and we have 2 sets of emergency exits for the passengers. Thats in an EU country.

Is one of the pilots supposed to help in the front door in case of evacuation?
(I have been a paying passenger in a plane with no FA at all, only two pilots, but that was not a real passenger airliner.)

Certainly there are people here that know exactly what regulations their airlines have. Please enlighten us.
Also, are the rules given by international or national safety organisations, airlines themselves, manufacturers or trade unions?
Which airlines do have to obey foreign rules if they fly to international?

These rules are quite important when we are speculating should the next narrow-body have exactly 150 or 200 seats or would something more or less be more effective.

Certainly there are people here that know exactly what regulations their airlines have. Please enlighten us.
Also, are the rules given by international or national safety organisations, airlines themselves, manufacturers or trade unions?

Rather than US, why don't you Google it or look it up in the FARs, Part121 for starters.. When you find it you can report back,

YIMBY wrote:

Is one of the pilots supposed to help in the front door in case of evacuation?

No, we can't even be guaranteed to reach the passenger cabin. The cargo area separates us from them, and there is a possibility that it will be blocked after a crash. We have a rooftop hatch to escape from.

YIMBY wrote:

Certainly there are people here that know exactly what regulations their airlines have. Please enlighten us.
Also, are the rules given by international or national safety organisations, airlines themselves, manufacturers or trade unions?
Which airlines do have to obey foreign rules if they fly to international?

These rules are quite important when we are speculating should the next narrow-body have exactly 150 or 200 seats or would something more or less be more effective.

The number of cabin crew required is set down by the state of the aircraft operator. By far the vast majority follow the standardized rules of EASA and the FAA, possibly with some minor local exceptions.

The OPs experience sounds weird though. Maybe JetBlue has an exemption that allows them to go with just 3 attendants in case of a crew member reporting sick at short notice. Or maybe the 4th cabin crew member was actually onboard, just not working for whatever reason. Maybe the 4th crewmember had exceeded the contractual obligations, but was helping the scheduling department out of a tight squeeze, but only providing the most basic level of work to get the flight under way?

Canadian rules are each type has a minimum number, usually one for every pair of doors (window exits don't count, so for the earlier reply regarding the ATR there are just the main doors at the back and window exits at the front, so one flight attendant is fine), and then after that it's one for every 40 passengers on board.

Here the number of seats doesn't matter, just how many passengers are on board. You can fly around all day long with a 160 seat airplane and only three flight attendants, but you'd only be allowed to put 120 passengers on.

Examples would be an ATR with 34 seats = one flight attendant required. A 737 with one passenger = two flight attendants required, one for each pair of doors. A 737 with 125 passengers = four flight attendants are now required to keep within the 1:40 rule.

As a side note the general rule is 1 flightie for every 40 passengers but airlines can apply for special permission to do up to 1:50, and this is how most 50 seaters such as the Dash-8-300 and CRJ100/200s are flown.