PA Volume

Not sure if others have noticed this too, but having travelled a lot with VS over the past year (just made Gold!) I have noticed that when the cabin crew or captain is making announcements on the PA it seems generally very quiet on many aircraft. Often to the degree that once the air conditioning is running it can be so bad that the announcement can't be heard.

A noteable exception was on VS018 on Wednesday, operated by an A343 - Jetstreamer where the annoucnements were loud and very clear.

Just as well as there was a 30 min delay as one of the engines was receiving mechanical attention, requiring a ground test of the engine before departure. The captain's announcements about this were very clear - just as well so we could hear why the engine doors were open and two engineers had their heads inside.

[honey lamb]

I sometimes get very frustrated at the announcements from the cockpit simply because they are not clear enough and that applies to all airlines.

Some pilots are excellent but others need to go on a communication course

I agree, I noticed this on the VS20 on Thursday, could hardly hear anything.

[Nottingham Nick]

It is a constant annoyance for me. As a confirmed anorak, I actually want to know how long the flight is going to be, and what route we are going to take. 8D

The volume on the PA is almost always far too low, and some of the pilots seem to feel it is a real chore to have to communicate to the passengers. n(

Nick

Yep, find them very hard to hear most of the time. A good solution is to plug your headphones into the IFE and listen that way.

The pilots cant hear themselves when making a PA so are usually unaware they need to speak up, whereas the crew can as we make our PAs from the cabin. If you cant hear the Captain's PAs let the crew know and we can ask him or her to speak up. It's true a lot of them do tend to mumble into the PA.

I must admit i think it also often applies to cabin crew announcments too. So it seems that the volume levels are just not high enough rather than a captain not speaking clearly.

It was a pleasent surprise on Jetstreamer to find it was loud and clear.

The volume is turned up or down on the IFE system

Sorry I should have been clearer - the volume levels I was referring to are those on the actual speakers in the cabin as opposed to the IFE volume