Calculating Meet the man in charge of weight and balance at Lao Airlines By Latsamy Phonevilay
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ost young people, when they dream of working for an airline, imagine themselves airborne. Whether as a pilot or among the cabin crew, airline work usually involves flying, right?
trained to join Lao Airlines’ Weight Balance Division. That was 14 years ago, and he hasn’t looked back.
Not for Sisavath Southammavong, who spends his days in an office poring over complicated mathematical formulas, all related to the weight and balance of everything that goes into an aeroplane before takeoff.
But even though he enjoys coming into work every day, the job isn’t always easy.
From fuel to pantry, baggage to passengers, staff to cargo, Sisavath and his team are across it, in numerical terms, making precise calculations to ensure the safety of everyone involved. Sisavath loves his work, but it wasn’t always a dream job for him. When he finished college and graduated at the age of 23, he, like everyone else, had plans to be a pilot. But health problems forced him to choose a different tack, and he eventually
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Now the manager of his division, he oversees a staff of 11 and plans to stay in the job until he retires.
“A lot of people would like to come and work for this division, but they don’t realise that it's actually quite difficult work,” he says. “This job is quite strict with calculations, you have to be exact and precise and sure, and if you’re not that kind of person and don't like learning formulas, it’s not for you,” he says. And the training required to do the work is equally rigorous, with four mandatory technical courses, and re-training every two years.
