Can an airline lay off its flight attendants and use pilots to fill the role?

Question

IcelandAir recently announced that it will be laying off its entire flight attendant staff, and plans to have pilots fill the role in the meantime.
Can an airline lay off its flight attendants and replace with pilots without requiring further training or certification? Generally, pilots are trained to fly the airplane and oversee the safety of the flight - but are they qualified to act as flight attendants? Is there any area a flight attendant maybe more qualified than a pilot, excluding passenger service and a smile on the face?

John K · Accepted Answer

When I was flight crew on CRJs for a private operator we got abbreviated FA training for pilots, which was mostly a kind of crowd control course, taught by a contract FA. Their training is about managing a chaotic cabin full or panicking passengers. FA's are more or less under-cover riot control cops who spend their careers working as servers/attendants and are very unlikely to use their actual training.
So theoretically, airlines could offer flight crews FA postions, if they were willing to take the pay cut and were willing to be reminded every day where they are not, performing that undercover waiter/waitress function.  Yes, additional training would be required because airline flight crews don't get significant FA (crowd control) training and a pilot would have to take the FA course.
This is an opinion, but I would say not a difficult call; you would NOT get any takers. Every pilot will take the furlough and go look for another flying job, or change careers.  There is just no way that someone who loves flying enough to jump through all the hoops to get into a flight deck would take that kind of "demotion" (maybe... maybe... one person here or there would agree to it out of sheer desperation, but not enough to be significant).

Daniele Procida · Answer

At least some of the remarks here show a very poor understanding of what cabin crew are and what they do.
No, pilots cannot replace cabin crew without substantial formal training.
Cabin crew are highly trained professionals, just like pilots. It's true that unlike pilots they are not in command of the machinery, and that their role requires them to do many much less glamorous, high-prestige tasks than pilots have to do.
That doesn't make them any less professional or trained. Instead, they manage people in large numbers and their behaviour and look after their needs, in an environment that is both unnatural and stressful, and tends to provoke poor behaviour.
Amongst other things, they typically speak multiple languages, have first-aid skills and can deal equally effectively with a weeping widower, a gang of drunken oil-rig workers returning, someone having a panic attack, an over-entitled business executive, etc etc etc.
In cases of emergency, they are responsible for ensuring the safety of dozens or hundreds of frightened people, by getting them to stay calm and  follow instructions.
Anyone who imagines that the people with these skills and training could effectively be replaced with people lacking them is dreaming.

Robert DiGiovanni · Answer

It could work both ways.  Having a steward that is qualified to fly or "sit in" as a flight engineer in high workload situations (take off/landing/illness to pilot or copilot/inclement weather/aircraft malfuction) would be an asset, especially on a smaller carrier.  Pilots could also add diversity to their job by rotating to serve passengers, if they so desired.
But the "people factor" is very important, some may wish to try it, others no.  First aid training and security, as well as diplomacy, would be talents required for stewards but would also benefit pilots.
All personnel on a passenger plane are vital components of a team, and some may find additional responsibilities a welcome improvement to their daily work experience.

Michael Hall · Answer

Most pilots are not currently qualified to serve as flight attendants, but they could be trained easily enough following an abbreviated syllabus.
Since pilots are already familiar with all the aircraft emergency equipment and procedures, training would just need to focus on specific tasks in different areas of the cabin.  That, plus operation of beverage and food service equipment.
It wouldn't be a difficult transition if the pilots were willing.

Can an airline lay off its flight attendants and use pilots to fill the role?

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