All there is to it!!!

Ever wonder what it's like to be plane side of the airplanes that are parked at the gates of an airport? Well, I'm about to show you. I get to see it every day on every flight. And I've had the privilege of this fun job for over 18 years! The pictures don't show all the detailed jobs that happen after each plane arrives, but it's the general idea of what we do. In addition to unloading/reloading the bags, we also have to provision the aircraft, dump/refill the lavatories, and sometimes refill the potable water. That's what is used on board for washing hands, making coffee, etc. We also have to plug some very large heater/air conditioning hoses and electrical power cords into the aircraft while the planes sit at the gate.
I wish I had a photo of the rear cargo bin but the person I had taking pictures didn't get back there for that shot. Oh well, maybe another time. It's a much larger and l o n g e r bin than the one I'm working in from the photo. We have someone working each bin at the same time. And because we have so many bags all day long, we switch off people from bin to bin, flight to flight. That way no one person is doing all the heavy lifting on every single flight. There isn't a lot of room and generally people have to work on their knees. Very physical! (Can you say, "And one and two and one and two and .....!) I hope you find this interesting......


Getting ready for the plane to arrive at the gate.
Aircraft pulling into the gate....agent directing it into the gate.
Aircraft is almost parked next to the jetway.

From front to back, bags coming off airplane.
Dave loading bags into cart that come off aircraft.
Unloading bags off airplane.

Me working in the front cargo bin of flight...unloading the Omaha bags.
Pushing the airplane back away for departure.

The flight is leaving Omaha
Eating lunch after working the flight.