Line Service Supervisor

Bag handling fees aside, the real reason airplane passengers can’t bring all the luggage they want is a matter of weight. Too much weight and the plane burns too much fuel too quickly, and it might not get where it’s going. As a Line Service Supervisor, your big responsibility is to make sure no airplane gets overloaded with baggage.

As a Line Service Supervisor you can think of yourself a little bit like a professional packer. When luggage goes into a plane’s cargo hold, it has to be put in a certain way. If there’s too much luggage on one side of the plane, or worse, if it’s packed badly and shifts mid-flight, it can completely throw off the plane’s center of balance, which is not a good thing. It’s your job as the Line Service Supervisor to ensure these problems don’t arise unsolved.

In order to combat this, you watch as luggage and packages are loaded, and make sure everything is being put in the right way. You keep an eye on the weight of the plane to make sure it’s not being overloaded, and move around any packages that will affect the way the plane flies. Packing a plane correctly means walking a fine line between getting as much cargo in as possible and not endangering the airplane and its passengers. Specialized computer programs and charts help you figure out how much is too much, and where more pieces of luggage can go.

When you’re not packing, you oversee other workers. You handle basic tasks like scheduling shifts, solving problems, and hiring, firing, and training workers.