A day in the life: Colm Quigley

Colm moved to Barcelona in 2006 to work as an engineer for Vueling Airlines when it first started. He was made redundant in 2009 when Clickair and Vueling merged. Since then he has worked for Wizzair in Budapest, Spanair in Barcelona and Ryanair throughout Europe. In June, an opportunity arose to be based back in Barcelona where he is now providing management services for Iberia. This has brought him back to working on Vueling aircrafts once again.

1pm

I set my alarm, otherwise I could sleep all day. I like to have time to go for a swim most days. If I get home too late this doesn’t always happen.

2pm

I have breakfast, but it’s more like brunch. Some days the kids are home for lunch so I catch up with them. I prepare a lunch to take to work then leave.

3pm

I arrive at Barcelona El Prat Airport for a 12-hour shift.

4pm

I get an update on the status of any out-of-service aircrafts, known as AOGs (Aircraft on Ground). On any given day, there may be up to five AOGs. Each aircraft has a maintenance schedule that must be adhered to, regardless of whether there are any AOGs.

5pm

I inspect each plane and review any defects, cross checking the time it will take to repair against the provisional return to service time.

7pm

We have an operational meeting every evening to plan the maintenance work on the 45-55 aircraft based in Barcelona, the majority of which belong to Vueling. I review the fleet defects that need to be fixed overnight. 

9pm

I then make a plan for the engineers. Operational limitation defects have the highest priority. For example, if the weather radar is inoperative, the plane wouldn’t be able to fly in bad weather conditions. It’s imperative to fix this, especially in the case of extreme weather conditions.

11pm

I eat when I feel hungry, although it’s usually when I get a free half an hour, so the time varies. I’m not sure whether to call it lunch or dinner, as I only have two meals a day while working at night. I’m fading away!

12am

Following a shift change at 11pm, we distribute the manpower into teams to work on the items planned. There are up to 60 engineers and support staff working at night, so it’s all about planning. We have to be efficient to get the planes back flying by sunrise, in time for their scheduled departure times. 

3am

I sign off and go home. I usually wind down with a beer and watch some TV. Then it’s time for bed.