Chantelle Stamp had worked at Travel City Flights – part of XL Airways – as a cabin manager for ten years when the company collapsed.
She said: “It came as a real shock. There were always rumours going round that the company was in trouble but you learned to turn a blind eye.”
The Manchester-based worker had loved her job at XL and was close to her colleagues. “We were a very close-knit base and had a lovely manager. There was never any bitchiness and we were know as being a very friendly airline. We had lots of regular passengers on the Travel City Flights because of the friendly service we gave.”
All the staff have been hit hard by the news and are disappointed in the lack of media coverage about their plight. She said. “People are saying it almost feels like a bereavement because it was so sudden. All the media attention was on the passengers stranded abroad – but there were crew members there too.
“People haven’t given much thought to the hundreds of people who have lost their jobs. Some of them were couples with joint mortgages.”
Chantelle (37) has started her job hunt but is not sure which direction to take. “I’m only skilled to be cabin crew and it will be hard to join another airline, because they tend to take people at the beginning of their careers. I haven’t worked in an office for ten years so things will have changed a lot. I’m not sure what to do next.”