Heathrow Airport Workers - Is it worth a career?

Posted by Just-Swordfish8162@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 24 comments

I’m considering a change in career and have always liked the idea of working at an airport. I’ve probably been influenced by watching ITV’s Heathrow: Britain’s Busiest Airport — the environment, variety, and pace really appeal to me.

I’d love to hear from people working in different roles at Heathrow about what you actually do day to day, and whether you enjoy working in that environment. I’m particularly interested in hearing about management, pay, working conditions, and overall job satisfaction. I appreciate it’s a broad question and that there’s no one-size-fits-all role.

For context, I currently earn around £60k, so I understand that moving into this industry may involve a pay cut, which I’m open to within reason. I should also mention that I currently work shifts and really want to move away from that, so I’m ideally looking for a Monday–Friday role at Heathrow rather than shift-based work.

Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated.

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OldLondon@reddit

Worked at Heathrow, Gatwick etc over the years. Depends entirely what kind of role you are looking for. Heathrow for example isn’t an airport, it’s a city. It has every single possible job type you can think of both airport specific and non airport specific.

Airports are fascinating and complex places to work at. Salaries will vary hugely depending on the job just like anywhere else. I was in IT and paid 6 figures plus.

What roles or areas interest you?

EbbEvening2578@reddit

Am interested in an IT role since that's my background but I don't mind doing lauggage

ahoneybadger3@reddit

Depends what part of the airport, there's a lot of different departments.

ginzamdm@reddit

What is different about the charter / ski / Lapland flights?

Charter is a privately booked flight put on specially, so rugby teams, football teams, jewish flights are a big one around November.

Ski flights are your usual winter trips mainly. Chambery opens up and such, lot of people checking in their own skis which really holds up the baggage lads. Cycling teams too are the same. Lapland flights are specially put on flights to Lapland that get extra decorations and meals and such. A lot of kids activity packs and that.

Bifanarama@reddit

What are the Jewish flights? Not just normal El Al ones?

samsaBEAR@reddit

The scared of flying flights are interesting, I've never flown before and wouldn't mind doing something like this. What's the official term for them so I can look into it?

Left_Condition2044@reddit

https://flyingwithconfidence.com/ Hope this helps!

anonymouse39993@reddit

You are going to get a massive pay cut just working in an airport unless you go into a specialised area of aviation

LentilRice@reddit

I know someone who joined a McDonald’s at the airport and attempted to work their way up to be a pilot.

ScholarOk4307@reddit

Pragooeyyy

kashie333@reddit

Would you like fries with that

TheSmallestPlap@reddit

Press burger

Relevant-Ad-9270@reddit

Did he want to go to Pragooeee?

ThePerpetualWanderer@reddit

Significant pay cut.
Likely a longer commute - And to a place that can be very busy.
Most roles mean dealing with the public, which can be great but just remember all of those angry episodes from just about every airport show ever.
Most roles are either paying minimum wage (or very close) or require specific experience/qualifications - What is it you're looking/hoping to do?

Notagelding@reddit

I work in airport security (different airport) and it's very rare that I encounter an angry passenger. Weeks can go by, in fact.

I work at a different airport and I'm 44 now but I wish I started working in airport security when I was way younger. Theres loads of progression to be had but I don't have the drive that I used to 😂

oudcedar@reddit

There are high paid jobs at airports - I was on £80k nearly 30 years ago - but they are very specialised and take a few years to build up to so it’s not a sensible option unless you are, for example, an expert retail manager, or a logistics expert, or have particular IT skills in critical airport systems (in my case). So if your money making skill exists outside airports and inside too then it’s a sideways move into another industry. If not you will be starting way way down from 60k.

Elowenrose26@reddit

The pay cut won’t be “within reason”. Passenger service assistants often work for a handling company and aren’t paid much more than minimum wage.

Depending on if you work for airport or airline, you can also receive quite a lot of abuse from passengers, and have pressure from the airlines to check in/board passengers at a rate.

mrafinch@reddit

I don’t work at LHR, but at an airport. It’s a fun environment to work in, there can be long hours and shit work to do … but the teams are generally quite tight and suffer together.

I work in the cargo department and I’ve learned that the people preparing and building up the cargo onto the units are dumb as absolute fuck, but somehow manage to prepare 20,000kg for a passenger aircraft that manages to take off and land safely.

In all seriousness there is a lot of possibilities at the airport and is an interesting place to work

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