There’s a lot to love about the Airbus A350. In addition to its spaciousness, large windows, and modern electronics, it features massive next-generation overhead bins that easily accommodate everyone’s carry-on bags. Yet it is precisely these giant A350 overhead bins that have angered flight attendants and even led to a lawsuit seeking a court order alleviating flight attendants of the responsibility of closing them.
Flight Attendants Sue Over A350 Overhead Bins…And Lose
Older aircraft like the Airbus A330 or the Boeing 767 have overhead bins with a lid that goes up and down like an automobile trunk. These are very easy to open and shut, but the fixed space inside limits carry-on items and in some cases forces passengers to turn larger bags sideways, even for some bags within the permissible size limit. That results in greatly-reduced overall hand baggage capacity and thus may force passengers who board late to check bags.
The A350 (and also new modern Boeing jets) solved this problem by developing a new type of overhead bin. Airbus calls its new bins “XL bins” and boasts that each one can accommodate five full-size carry-on bags. These cantilevered bins are no doubt more efficient, but when the bags are placed in, the weight of all the carry-on items must be pushed up when the bin is closed.
While flight attendants are not required to lift bags, they are required to close overhead bins, which has presented quite a challenge on jets featuring these next-generation bins. I focus on the A350 because it has been the subject of a recent lawsuit in Spain.
Earlier this year, the union representing flight attendants at Iberia sued the airline in a Spanish court, asking for relief. The union sought a court order that required Iberia to either retrofit overhead bins to the “old” style ones or make it optional for flight attendants to have to close them.
The court instead ordered Iberia to limit the weight of customer carry-on items. While Iberia has a published weight limit (10 – 14 kg), the limit is not practically enforced. It is not clear how Iberia will abide by this court ruling.
You can read the 10 November 2022 Audiencia Nacional court decision here.
CONCLUSION
This court decision is over a month old, but I stumbled upon it when talking to a Lufthansa flight attendant yesterday who was complaining about the same issue. I had not considered it before, but these new overhead bins do indeed take some force to shut when full. While I think the better solution is to have two flight attendants close these bins together, I do understand the concern.
If you’re a flight attendant, have you struggled to close or even injured yourself with one of the new next-generation overhead lockers?
image: Airbus
Guess this isn’t a problem for DL’s FAs on their A350s because on my recent flights in J on A350 routes, the FAs made us close the bins when they were full. They were really good at this, where they would see who put in their bag in the overhead bin last and walk up to that passenger to tell them to close it.
I am certainly in favour of enforcing the hand luggage restrictions for size, weight and quantity. Too many flights are getting delayed because of the delay in stowing all the bags in the cabin.
Is it because Boeeing’s Sky-bins have the switch on the side that allows a counterweight to relieve some force from the crew and Airbus did not implement that?
If flight attendants are not strong enough to close an overhead bin, how are they going to open a cabin door in an emergency or assist passengers to get off the airplane in an crash?
Well, as per one comment above, on Delta, they’ll make you do it yourself. Maybe they’ll have someone open the emergency doors too, like, whoever is first in line?
They will make you close the bin? So what next; they will make you do the safety briefing and then serve drinks? You bought a ticket to fly on the plane, not to work on the plane. Just say no when being told to close the bin.
How often do you think the flight attendants are opening those doors for an emergency, versus closing bins? I’m sure they are perfectly capable of closing the bins. However, doing that 30 times every single flight comes with greatly increased risk of injuries, which if happens may actually make them more likely to not be able to do their actual job, which is to ensure your safety when incidents occur, including opening those doors.
I have worked with women who load and unload hundreds of suitcases a day in the cargo pits of aircraft, many weighing 70 pounds or more. These hard workers also are capable of handling pieces of freight weighting 200 pounds or more. So women flight attendants should be strong enough to close the overhead bins on a airbus 350. I believe that are actually capable of doing so, but just find it hard or uncomfortable to do so. Well, it’s hard and uncomfortable to stack 70 pound suitcases too and I see hard working women do that everyday. I think many women who are capable of hard physical work find it culturally acceptable to find a man to do it for them just like cleaning gutters or changing a car tire. I still say if I flight attendant can’t or won’t close an overhead bin she is not trustworthy or strong enough to act appropriately in an aircraft emergency.
Aircraft doors are equipped with a power assist system when the door is opened in automatic mode.
If you want equal pay, then you need to be able to do equal work.
If you are referring to gender, no mention was made to that in this article. Trust me, male flight attendants are subject to Indusrtrial injuries on the plane and certain to back strains. It’s often at an awkward angle to push those 100+ lb overheads closed.
it’s never been equal pay. its equal pay for work of equal value.
Just put in the work requirements that Flight Attendants must be able to close overhead luggage bins of a specified number of pounds or kilos. One of my jobs had such a requirement in it. On the other hand, I have seen flight attendants on Asian airlines actually team up to close the bins. They worked together very well and very efficiently. There is no reason flight attendants in Europe or the USA cannot do the same. This seems to be a complaint to get more pay. On the other hand, if they were to hand out dollar bills to helpers or even better, $5 bills, they would have a lot of people willing to help. Shoot, some might help for minor freebies. Of course, politely asking a sufficiently strong passenger might work but that would go against the militarized, we are in charge, attitude. I have helped flight attendants close bins in the past for nothing more than a smile and a thank you.
I’ve also noticed that the A350 overhead bins when full are quite difficult to close. It’s better on airlines such as Qatar to the U.S. where each passenger gets a minimum of 2 checked bags, but it’s more noticeable on Delta domestic flights with the A350 or flights to Europe (which have basic economy, and therefore more pasengers with carry-on bags).
…”…seeking a court order alleviating FA’s responsibility to close the bins…”
Meaning what? – they bark orders at passengers to “rearrange” their bags in every bin while you will just have passengers who ignore the orders and do nothing. Obviously delays and arguments in the making. How about FA’s just do their job, even things that are not so glamorous?
What is different about the Boeing 787 and MAX bins that have similar capacity? Do they have some kind of power assist to help close the bins?
most of the newer Boeing bins have a switch on the side that activates a counterweight.
Hearing DL A350s have different kind of bins than the IB ones. Can they swap to DL bins, or do DL bins not provide the same capacity as the larger ones?
The A321s we have over at American have super large bins but with a normal lid on top that just closes dow, no lifting weights required. I’m yet to see a bag fail to fit in it. I don’t understand why carriers can’t put that bin on every plane.