CelebAir

Is anyone watching this?

If they are, then you might be intrigued to hear just what the celebrities are actually going through. Have two friends at Monarch who have been looking into this and here's what they told me:

The celebrities are only working weekends, and often only working the outbound leg of the flight, and doing a stopover before deadheading back on the Sunday morning to film the booting.

The two celebrities per A/C are in reality surplus to requirements. They are not required to operate any emergency exits, liaise with gate crew or plan any aspect of the flight. This is left to the full cabin crew already on board, including the seconder at the rear of the A/C.

The celebs are only responsible for the CelebAir cabin, which is separated from the rest of the fare-paying cabin by the yellow headrests. Celebrities are booked into the aft seats, meaning that the regular crew must deal with the normal fare-paying pax in the front cabin.

Each flight is filmed by a camera/technical crew of five people.

You would think that at a time of economic crackdowns and airlines going bust, MON would be a little bit more careful with what they're spending their money on. Seems leasing a plane to a pair of airheads to pretendy-play cabin crew for a weekend is on the list.

It doesn't really surprise me that there is also a full complement of fully trained cabin staff on board; that's probably a health and safety requirement. If there was an emergency during the flight I know who I'd be looking to for instruction, and it wouldn't been some Z-list celebrity playing at being cabin crew for the weekend.

I'd assume ITV are paying Monach for this and it's free advertsing for Monach either way, it must make financial sense for the airline and the broadcaster.

And as for the rest of what you have put it's an ITV 2 reality show not a serious documentry.

Monarch has a savvy management. They know what they are doing and - rather than lose money on this venture - they will be well compensated for this.

Those of you in the airline industry will understand the irony of the airheads deadheading on the inbound!!!!

I was under the impression it was the whole plane that was CelebAir 'class'?

That would be worrying for anyone living under a flight path!

There are few references to Monarch made during the show. It's even blanked out of the engine covers.

And yes, I'm aware of that. I just figured other people who aren't quite as arséy as you might like to know.

A couple of others:

Employees of Monarch and travel agent companies have been approached for flights
Its not only the CelebAir plane that is used, the generic Monarch ones are used too but we only ever see the outside of the CelebAir plane

I found out both from a friend that works for Monarch.

Yep - none of that surprises me. I'd be horrified if the Celebs replaced existing flight crew, unless they'd gone through the full training course that regular flight crew have.

As for the separate cabin - unless Monarch are warning all customers that they will be filmed prior to booking they have to ensure customers who do not wish to appear on camera don't. (There are VERY valid reasons for people not to appear on camera - particularly people escaping domestic violence etc.)

I'd be very surprised if Monarch weren't being paid a hefty facility fee for this.

Obviously that is no surprise, but while in the past nobody would have thought twice of them using shots of a different plane from the outside so it's all branded CelebAir, nowadays isn't that considered fakery and deception?

They're screwed either way though - if they used the actual plane it would be product placement.

Did you really think they'd get rid of the genuine flight crew and allow celebrities who did two weeks training to operate emergency procedures? Or that they'd paint and rebrand a whole fleet of planes?

None of that is any surprise at all.

Pax not wanting to be filmed sit in the front rows of the cabin. Only CelebAir passengers sit in the back 10 rows. The A/C varies. Due to obvious issues, it doesn't do well for Monarch to have one a/c on the ground while LGW is left wanting. So the a/c being used for exterior shots, while it may be the one that flies out, will then fly back with fare-paying pax to LGW and be used again. There are separate prices for CelebAir and for Monarch flights, detailed on the website.

I actually find it very patronising to cabin crew. Far from helping the airline industry, at a time when many airlines are struggling to make ends meet and some are beginning to fold, it beggars belief that out of work CC are being held off by a bunch of braindead celebs wanting to boost their flagging careers.