The truth about the commission airline staff earn on booze, bag charges and scratch-cards

Telegraph

7 hours ago

You don't need to watch one of those fly-on-the-wall documentaries to appreciate that working for an airline can be a stressful job – and one that isn't always handsomely compensated.
In theory, then, most of us wouldn't begrudge the opportunity for staff to earn themselves a bonus for good performance. In reality, some bonuses can prove more contentious than you might expect, particularly when customers are kept in the dark about them.
For a prime example, look at the comments earlier this summer from Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary – never one to avoid controversy – when he said he wanted to see ground staff given extra money in return for enforcing the airline's notoriously strict baggage rules.
Naturally, the comments ruffled some feathers from those who fear the low cost carrier is tough enough with its allowances.
Ryanair has since confirmed that its ground staff are already paid a small commission, reportedly around €1.50 per bag intercepted. 'That is likely to rise to €2.50 per bag in October,' says a Ryanair spokesman. 'We are determined to eliminate the scourge of oversized bags which delays our boarding process and annoys the 99.9 per cent of passengers who comply with the rules.'
It certainly isn't the first time that Ryanair's 'incentives' have come under the spotlight. It's been known since the mid-2010s that cabin crew were being paid a commission on any on-board sales – including alcohol and scratch-cards – to help the airline make more money.
There were also suggestions at the time that staff with lower sales figures were being given less choice over their roster – something that the airline denies.
An American invention
Like many things in the budget airline world, the practice was pioneered by American carriers, who have become notorious for badgering their passengers to sign up to airline credit cards. According to one Spirit staffer, cabin crew can receive as much as $70 when a customer successfully takes out one of their cards.
Either way, these incentives have now become an essential part of the deal when working for low-cost carriers and charter airlines in particular. 'When I worked as cabin crew for a major charter airline, around 40 per cent of my earnings was made up of on-board sales commissions,' says Charlotte Crocker, a former flight attendant who now provides training to cabin crew.
'We would sell duty-free products, headsets, food, drinks and anything else that was available. We weren't put under a huge amount of pressure from the airline, but they would offer extra bonuses – like a pair of designer sunglasses or something similar – to the best sellers.'
As for the current incentives, Ryanair pays 10 per cent on all in-flight sales, as does its competitor Wizz Air. There are also extra incentives for high performers: when travel writer Rob Crossan attended a Wizz training day for The Telegraph a few years ago, he found that top sellers were given more choice over which routes they worked, meaning they could pick the higher-spending flights.
While commission is still a big deal, the pressure from above has eased up over the years, say insiders, partly due to the number of airlines scrambling to recruit cabin crew. Though the ongoing cost of living crunch means that staff have an extra incentive to earn their bonuses, particularly when the standard salary for low-cost airlines can be around £20,000 per year.
As for the legacy carriers, the emphasis on bonuses is much smaller. 'On the short-haul flights you can get commission on food and drink sales, but it's generally a much smaller part of your pay,' says a British Airways staffer. 'It's not like Ryanair where people make money from the non-stop alcohol [sales].'
Mixed messages
It's all rather intriguing given the general push towards responsible drinking, with Michael O'Leary in particular emerging as an unlikely voice of moderation in recent years.
Last year, he even called for airports to enforce a two-drink minimum to help prevent on-board misbehaviour. Though when you weigh up the economics of in-flight hospitality, it's not hard to see why Ryanair might take a slightly different approach towards its own alcohol sales.
According to IATA, the global aviation trade body, European airlines generate an average profit of just £6.80 per passenger (indeed if you divide Ryanair's profits by its passenger numbers, you get a very similar number). Those kinds of margins mean that hospitality sales can make a sizeable difference, particularly with alcoholic drinks.
According to US industry figures, airlines typically make around 50 per cent profit on every alcoholic drink they sell, not least as they aren't subject to the same taxation rules as restaurants and bars. Even if they pay a 10 per cent bonus to the staff member who sold the drinks, they're still making a healthy profit.
As for the baggage fees, Ryanair currently charges up to £75 for each item of over-sized baggage that gets stopped at the gate. If ground staff get €1.50 (or £1.30) for each bag they intercept, they're still getting a much less generous deal than their cabin crew peers. Arguably, they're also doing the far tougher job of having to tell disgruntled customers they need to pay more.
Interestingly, the idea of paying bonuses to ground staff gets a thumbs up from cabin crew too. 'Sometimes I think that ground staff don't bother about stopping people with larger bags as they don't want the trouble,' says a flight attendant with one full-service airline. 'But that creates problems for us on board when there isn't enough locker space to go around.'
On the other hand, if ground staff had an extra incentive to enforce the rules then passengers would be less inclined to try their luck in the first place. It also means that those who have shelled out the extra cash in order to bring on board more luggage won't feel aggrieved for having wasted their money, they suggest.
That's the thing about airline bonuses: we might not always like them, but they do tend to make sense – at least from the perspective of those responsible for keeping the industry moving in the first place.