As crew at the London base I can firstly tell you that a lot more then 80 of our crew are Australian, the figure is around 40%.

The base has been open over 4 years now and provides an awful lot of cost saving synergies, streamlines operations and provides efficiency.

Australian based crew previously operated the QF31/32 through to London however since the arrival of the A380 on this route, they now do the QF9/10. The Bangkok base has been open for around 10 years and has around 80 crew members who fly throughout the network including on the QF1/2 to/from London although there is only ever 1 to 2 Thai crew on these flights.

To become a London based crew member you first need to apply, undergo an extensive phone interview, attend a group interview and pass the morning stages before undergoing a two on one interview and finally pass a medical. You then undergo some 8 weeks of training before you go online. The base employs high quality crew including a large number of former Silverjet and EOS crew.

Passengers have never complained to me or any other crew member I know about being ‘surrounded by British accents’.

For the record, Air New Zealand, JAL, ANA, United, KLM and several others all have UK bases.

QF380