September 1, 2008

Airlines, Flights and Cabin crew

My friend & erstwhile colleague Sudhir Bisht wrote in from Nigeria to give feedback on my blog. I refrain from putting the rest of his comments here since I may be accused of blowing my trumpet. He also asked me to include one of his articles in the blog which I willingly do since I found the matter exceedingly relevant for a larger group. The story just goes to show that we need to take pride in the success of our friends to experience joy.

This story by Sudhir was first published in The Business Day, Nigeria’s respected business daily of May 11 .

http://www.businessdayonline.com/analysis/comments/9524.html

The Virgin Nigeria flight, VK 302 from Johannesburg to Lagos, on 20th April was expected to be a long and boring one. The plane is rather staid with no personal TV screens in its economy class section (unlike Emirates). The first morsel is served at 11:30am and by then the stomach starts to grovel, if you have not eaten breakfast before you enter the flight.

To catch the 10:30am flight you need to be at the airport by 8:30am which means that if you have stayed in Pretoria, you need to start at 5am to be the airport on time, given the traffic between Johannesburg and Pretoria.

I was lucky to find a place to sit in the crowded lobby opening into several boarding gates. Tired from the exacting business tour, I immediately dozed off only to wake up minutes later when my fellow traveller and friend informed me that the boarding was announced.People rushed towards the boarding gate and waited a full fifteen minutes before the boarding actually commenced. This is one aspect of customer service where all the airlines need to improve a lot. Why must boarding be announced when those in charge of boarding aren't ready to receive the passengers? This is quite annoying but is something which happens all over the world, in all airlines and it involves the passengers queuing up restlessly before the boarding actually begins. An elderly lady who was a bit of a heavyweight and was fifth in the queue complained bitterly about her aching feet. Standing in the queue for fifteen minutes is much more painful than walking for fifteen minutes.

I could have slept for 15 more minutes, I thought.The flight was full. The passengers were of all hues. There were Lagos bound businessmen from South Africa, tourists returning to their homeland, well recognizable Political leaders, Cricketers on their way to London via Lagos and thirty school children with their teachers. Travellers from different origins going to different destinations were all ushered in the VK 302 flight by the smiling Flight stewardesses whom I instantly recognized. It was the same set of crew that flew with me on the onward Lagos-Johannesburg flight VK 303 on 17th April.One lady said, "Welcome back Mr. Bisht. Hope you had an excellent stay in South Africa." I was surprised by this reception. I may not be the most nondescript person on the earth but I am not famous either. May be because I was the last passenger to enter the flight VK 303 from Lagos to Johannesburg and that I had asked her for beer thrice on that flight, that she remembered me!

There are no in-flight magazines or newspapers for those who travel economy and I had forgotten the Jeffrey Archer’s book that I bought at Pretoria, in the taxi that took me to airport. This meant that I would have to watch the movie on the main screen, I thought.

The plane took off on time and after the mandatory safety demonstration, I waited for the drinks to be served, which were served very well. Time to watch the main screen, I thought but there was no sign of any entertainment there, much to the dismay of the school boys some of whom were flying for the first time and couldn't wait for the movie to start.

The controls of main screen entertainment were on the baggage space near my seat. The stewardess was trying to fix something and from her exasperated "Oh No! Oh me Gosh!" sounds I could make out that the big screen wouldn't work.

The announcement to that effect came soon, much to the disappointment of the school children. But the apology that followed from the cabin crew was straight from the heart. The stewardess who apologized said that the big screen system failure had happened for the first time and that she wasn't able to fix it because the system was a new one and she wasn't an "Engineer" by training and that she was really sorry about it.

The apology was so sincere that it melted the hearts of all concerned. Many questions started flying in my mind though. If the system was a new one, why was the crew not trained on fixing up small problems? Are the Flight attendants of other airlines "Engineers"? The moot point however is that the stewardess had saved the day for the airlines. The food was served which was OK to me since the chicken n rice meals had run out of stock and only beef n rice was there to be served. As I don't eat beef, I thought that I would have to remain contented with just bread, butter, salad and the dessert. Suddenly a steward with the most honest smile sprang to action and said that there was a vegetarian meal in their stock and that the same could be given to me. The flight attendants of Virgin Nigeria are really very good human beings, I thought.

Having taken my customary two cans of beer and eaten the delicious vegetarian meal I went into a deep slumber. I must have slept for the next 3 hours and when I woke up, the landing was being announced.

And then came a very important announcement."Ladies and Gentlemen, the man walking down the aisle is Flight Attendant Adebola. He has completed 2 years and 2 months with Virgin Nigeria as Flight Attendant. Today is his last flight with our airlines" The voice was dramatic and there was a momentary silence and then it went again, "As a flight attendant that is! From tomorrow Adebola starts his paid leave and would be going to the Pilot Training academy in Florida. So Ladies and gentlemen, if after a few months, you find a certain Captain Adebola flying your aircraft as a co-pilot, please remember that it would be the same Captain Adebola, who is presently walking down the aisle as a Flight Attendant."

There were thunderous clapping and shouts of "Congrats man. You’ve done it man. Keep it up, Captain." The old lady who had complained of her feet aching while she stood in the queue for fifteen minutes exclaimed, "Wow. What a nice company to work for. Looks after its employees so well! " I heard one schoolboy say that when he grows up, he would want to work for Virgin Nigeria.

The "Captain-in-waiting" shook almost every passengers’ hand. I felt elated when he came to shake hands with me. There was a standing ovation for the young man and I could see that all his colleagues were genuinely happy for him. What was it that was most remarkable about the last leg of the journey? What aspect of it impressed people the most? That the airline was sending a deserving employee for training so that he could move up in life is indeed remarkable. However what was most remarkable was the way the other colleagues celebrated his success. This is what impressed me most. I don't know if they were trained to celebrate the success of Flight Attendant Adebola like they did and even if they were it doesn't take away any credit from that set of joyous cabin crew.

With a crew like that Virgin Nigeria can afford many big screen failures.

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