A typical day on "the ramp". (The Ramp is a term for all things regarding seeing a plane it, unloading it, re-filling it, pushing it out and seeing it off again)
My first job required me to grab a "Charlatte" (an electric baggage tug) and go to stand 22, via "Bravo" where the bags that need loading will be, if they haven't already been delivered to the stand. First problem, none of the ramining Charlattes are working! Luckily, within minutes someone turns up to park one that works - so I nab that and off I whizz. I collect the 2 trailers for our plane and get to stand 22, albeit about 5 minutes late - I needn't have worried, the swarms of engineers vans round the plane tells me something is awry. It transpires there is a problem with a fuel leak, so we put the baggage bins on the low loader, but not on the plane as there is a good chance they will have to do a "plane swap". All we can do is go up to the gate and await further instructions - this is fine by us as it means we just stand around admiring the lovies hoping to head off to Malaga! After a further 30 minutes hanging around, some of the younger passengers are getting a bit agitated and we are required to have "a few words" with them. Luckily 10 minutes later the engineers allow the plane to fly and the passengers all cheer - we go back downstairs and set to work loading. Unfortunately, the delay means that the next plane we were to do is already parked up waiting to be loaded up. I am sent to start this while my other 2 team members finish off the first one. When I get to it, two of the office supervisors (in suit trousers and shirts) are making a start on it - although no bags are there yet. I whizz off to Bravo again and grab the two trailers and whizz back - the supervisors have put the luggage belt up to the hold and ask if I would mind doing the loading on my own (normally there are 2 of you in the plane - one to pass the bags and one to stack them). Seeing as they are supervisors I say "no problem!" Luckily it's on 71 bags so I manage it without too much trouble although the stacking wasn't the neatest! My other 2 team members turn up and we go to the departure gate to get any gate bags / children's pushchairs but there aren't any. But a passenger hasn't turned up...and his bag has been loaded. We leave it ten more minutes and still no sign of him, so the decision is made to remove his bag. Guess who gets the job...luckily it's one of the first I check - bag off, hold closed up and we're ready to push the plane out for take-off. And then the silly bastard passenger turns up and for some reason is allowed on - so hold opened up, bag put back on, close up again and the plane finally sets off. Next job is goes fine, but it is a shitty little Boeing 737 which are horrible to load up - I must have banged my head at least 10 times due to the crappy hold layout. We get sent back to base where I'm put on a break, so I scoff some food down and then nick a Charlatte so I can go out for a cigarette or two. I get back am immediately sent out for the evenings off-loads. First plane in is a heavily laden Airbus A320 from Sharm-el-Sheikh - 168 bags, all 20+ kilos, one was 37kg! Eeek, must have cost them a fortune. From then on it's just off-load after off-load and before I know it my team leader tells me to go back to base, even though we are only halfway through a job - it's because it's 01.45 already and time for home! The 10 hour shift has flown by!
