[ghlotus]

I recently too separate Finnair trips from Helsinki to Bangkok and Helsinki to Singapore. The Flights to/from Bangkok included Finnish cabin crew. Extremely professional, helpful, cheerful. The flights to/from Singapore however featured Singapore cabin crews. Efficient (in a somewhat stressed Singapore manner), but hardly very professional or cheerful. Possibly rejects from Singapore Airlines? Probably cheaper to employ than Finnish crew – but one expects European national Airlines to use crews from their own countries, yes? If nothing else, adds a degree of authenticity to the whole experience. And provides needed local employment.

[K1ngston]

Have to pick you up on two things, firstly I would be surprised if there is a cost saving using Singaporean staff, the cost of employment is high especially in Singapore.

Secondly what do you mean by “Stressed Singapore manner”? I fly 35 sectors a month with SQ and other Singaporean LCC’s they are never stressed. I am married to a Singaporean and stress is not a Singaporean trait, they are officious yes and over cautious but very professional indeed, this is instilled into them from an early age.

I have never flown Finnair so I cannot compare the 2 separate crews, so my thoughts are purely on my experiences with flight crew in Singapore

[AMcWhirter]

For the past few years Finnair has used OSM Aviation Group to recruit a number of cabin crew for their long-haul services. The idea is that these carriers will avoid paying Scandinavian salaries, social security contributions and so on.

Here are two recent recruitment ads:

https://osmaviation.com/job/finnair-cabin-crew-long-haul-singapore/

http://www.flygosh.com/2017/01/finnair-cabin-crew-recruitment-long.html

[ghlotus]

Dear Kingston:

I have two friends who are SQ cabin crew, and they tell me their job is stressful, as they are constantly watched and rated by their supervisors. I find SQ cabin crews extremely efficient, but somewhat robotic – afraid to go “off script” in any way. Ask the same question to different cabin attendants and you will receive exactly the same answer – as their training demands. Professional indeed, but I prefer somewhat more relaxed human interactions. And as for salaries – I would guess that Finnish salaries are at least four times Singapore salaries for the same job. Cost of living in Finland is also probably four times Singapore’s.

[Author]

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