MATT DANAHER, duty station manager for Scandinavian Airlines, describes his day
I LIVE IN MALAHIDE, so the commute to Dublin airport, where I’m duty station manager for Scandinavian Airlines, is only 10 minutes. I’ve been with the company for 15 years and in the airline business all my life. I love it.
Most days I’m in for 9.15am, and first up is to check e-mails, to make sure no problems have arisen. We have three planes going out each morning, to Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm.
The weather up in Scandinavia is the biggest factor likely to give rise to a hitch, but it doesn’t happen often.
After that I go down to the ticket desks to see how the guys are there. We have five ticket desks and two automated machines, which are my babies. I remember when we introduced them, showing the other airlines how they work. I was so proud. Now they all have them.
The next technology for us is check-in by mobile phone, where we can text passengers an SMS check-in code for scanning in at the airport. We already run them across Scandinavia and Europe but not yet in Dublin.
I like to meet passengers at check-in, before heading to the gate and then down the steps to check the fuelling and cleaning all goes off okay, that people’s luggage has been loaded properly and that the catering is on board.
We get a lot of regulars, so a lot of the passengers know me. Businesspeople tend to know what they want and what they are entitled to, whereas leisure travellers are a bit more leisurely: they want the chat – and, as it happens, I like the chat, too. We get a mix of both on most flights.
Once the three planes get off it’s usually lunchtime. I’ll go to O’Briens or Wrights, or bring a sandwich in. We get a small discount at the airport, but it still adds up. Very occasionally I will get an airplane meal – but only as part of my quality-control duties, of course.
In the afternoon I’ll spend most of my time doing admin, but we’ve a flight at 6pm, and the desk opens at 3.30pm, so I’ll be back down meeting passengers and checking things out again.
There’s an awful lot of walking involved in my day, maybe four kilometres by the time I’ve gone over and back a few times. Unfortunately, not enough to keep me fit.
Though it sounds like a routine, the thing is that no two days are ever the same, and what I love about it is meeting all sorts of people. The workers at the airport are great, too: it’s like a little community, and we all get on, even with our competitors.
I’ll head home after the evening plane goes out. I have three small kids, so it’s pretty full-on there, too.
In conversation with Sandra O'Connell