Tariq A. Al-Maeena

What sets aside one individual or company from another?  It may be size, financial strength or market penetration or just a throw of the dice.  However, there is an added factor, which is the human factor which is often seen lacking in many companies struggling to keep up with market leaders.



This is the story of two people, a mother and her son, and it happened not very far from here.  The mother, Sue Abdul, an Australian, joined a fledgling airline in a neighboring Gulf country 20 years ago.  After a brief interview at the operations center, she was taken on as a cabin attendant, one of some 500 cabin crew at the time. Sue married and gave birth to a baby boy, Karim, and maintained her employment with the airline.  As the airline grew so did her responsibilities but she was always there for her son Karim.



And true to the expression that an apple does not fall far from the tree, 20 years later Sue watched with pride as her son received his license to fly as a member of the cabin crew on the same airline.   She flew in to surprise her son during his graduation ceremony.  Holding back tears as she spoke, this gentle mother said: “When Karim told me that he wanted to become a member of the cabin crew for the airline, I jumped for joy.  In 1994, we were about 500 cabin crew with the new airline. And now Karim’s experience is such a contrast to mine – he travels to exotic destinations with colleagues from around the world.”



Sue says it was apparent from a young age that Karim might follow in her footsteps: “I was recently cleaning up and I found all of Karim’s old notebooks from when he was a kid. Each one of them had something about the airline and little airplanes drawn on them. After 20 years, I look back on those days with affection and nostalgia, and I am happy and feel reassured to know that Karim is going to have a great future here.”  Encouraging him along the way, she helped him through the process which ultimately saw him being recruited by the airline.  “I feel excited, happy, proud,” she said.



Karim became part of the airline’s cabin crew team in June, 2014. He states that the love of flying was an inspiration he picked up from his parents. “Both my parents are passionate about flying so it is a bit unsurprising that I find it in my destiny as well.  From the stories I heard growing up, the airline grew to be a natural choice for me,” he said.



In a video that the airline released, Karim said: “I combined my love for the customer service industry with my fanatical love for flying.”  His mother’s enthusiasm and her love for the airline "did rub off on me."   He added that it might be intimidating if his mother happened to be a passenger on a flight that he was operating on.  “If my mother was on my flight, I’d try to act natural. I’d probably get a bit nervous because I know that she would be watching me like a hawk,” he said.



This is a story within a much larger story which is the success of the airline. It is the pride, passion and loyalty of its staff such as Sue who was welcomed into the airline as part of the family that treated her with respect and dignity and to whom she gave her all. Her son today looks forward to upholding that same brand of pride and loyalty within the airline’s family.

 

— The author can be reached at talmaeena@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @talmaeena