A interesting programme was aired on the BBC 2 on Sunday, 31st May at 7pm, entitled "A Very British Airline", giving insight to the British Airways. Readers can watch all the episodes on the BBCiplayer.
Episode 3 was screened on that day. Midway, the programme concentrated on the contract aircraft cleaners, aka aircraft groomers. BA's target is 75 minutes for a team of groomers to bring a airliner to a "Spic 'n' Span" condition. Your readers may be interested to note the comments made by one of their team leader, Christina Mattah, a former Romanian handball player and a trained accountant, who said, "aircraft from India take more than hour an half, because all over it's messy, very, very dirty, food all over, on the galley, everywhere. If it's coming from America, it's alright, we can finish in one hour or even one hour, 20 minutes".
That made me wonder if all the adverse comments I hear regarding Air India on their performance, efficiency, and in particular, last minute flight cancellations, re-scheduling, or delays etc., is due to this particular "maintenance" issue.
If that is the case, I think I may have a cheaper solution to improve their efficiency/performance and reliabilty. Rather than pouring millions of rupees into Air India, how about introducing "Swacch Air India", by purchasing small plastic dust-pans, brushes, and small disposal rubbish bags. These would be issued to each passenger on board so that they clear their own rubbish. These can be collected, before the plane lands by the stewards, together with all the passenger's audio earpieces and blankets. The dust-pans and the brushes can be re-cycled for the next flight just as the audio earpieces and blankets.
Mohindra Master
By email
