For a flight attendant, the basics of the job stay the same whether it's a narrow-bodied or wide-bodied aircraft, although there are minor changes to service, safety and security. But, generally, if you are on widebody aircraft, you know you are really going somewhere (long-haul) and will have an average of 12 to 48 hours down-route.

Narrowbody aircraft

A narrowbody aircraft has one aisle and up to six passenger seats across - the Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 are examples of this configuration. They may be single class or have two classes - economy and business - and mostly operate short-haul and medium-haul routes. The largest aircraft of this type is the Boeing 757-300 which can seat up to 295 passengers.

A320 Airbus passenger cabin
The newest A320 cabin. Photo: Airbus

Widebody aircraft

A widebody aircraft has a twin-aisle and can seat up to ten passengers across - the Boeing 777 and Airbus 340 are just two of the types in this category. They will have two, three or four classes - economy and business class are the staples and then some may also have first class also and premium economy. They tend to operate on medium, long-haul and ultra-long-haul routes. The Airbus A380 is the largest widebody passenger aircraft, and in a three-class configuration, it holds around 540 passengers.

A380 Airbus Cabin
Photo: Airbus

Safety in the cabin

For a flight attendant on a narrowbody aircraft, there will be a significantly smaller team of between three and five flight attendants, depending on the number of seats and aircraft certification. In general, each flight attendant will have a specified area to attend to and usually 50 passengers or fewer to take care of in a normal operation or in an emergency.

Onboard the larger widebody types, the same rule of fewer than 50 passengers applies, but there are more door operations to be covered. For example, on an A340 a minimum of 9 flight attendants are required. On the A380, an average of 21- 26 flight attendants are carried depending on the airline and its operations and the number of passengers onboard.

Qantas Airbus A380 800
Photo: Qantas.

Service

On narrowbody aircraft, normally the senior crew member and one flight attendant will provide service at the front of the cabin, be it economy or business class. If the numbers are low in business class, the flight attendant will work in economy whilst the senior crew member does business class alone.

An all-economy service would start with two crew at the front of the aircraft and two crew from the over wing. It is very much sharing the workload as a small team. Communication is easier on smaller aircraft, as you can see and hear what is going on. It can be a quick, intense service as you may be providing meals, bar service, hot drinks, clearing in, and retail service, all in the space of an hour or two. Experienced crew get used to judging the timing needed as well as looking for visual or auditory clues in the cabin.

Wizz Air crew14
Crew operating short-haul flights have to be quick and efficient to get everything done that is needed. Photo: Wizz Air

On a widebody aircraft, your designated door area and the class of service will decide how and where you work. One could argue that each aisle in each class is run independently in small teams, like working on individual private jets. Both aisles should start all services at the same time, so everyone is on the same page and service runs smoothly. It is not often that the flight attendant will leave their area of service during the flight to work in another class or cabin, but occasionally it may happen if there is a high workload in one particular cabin.

Teamwork and good communication are essential, so everyone understands their role and what is expected of them. It is more difficult to communicate on larger aircraft, therefore the work tends to be more condensed to each class. On a long-haul flight, there is less time restriction for service. Other services such as water service are decided in each cabin, but the first and second meal service are normally set by the senior crew member, so all meals start at the same time.