TAP HAPPY

I enjoy reading your magazine and always turn to the letters page. After 45 years travelling the world working in airline catering for three major airlines, I am continually shocked by the poor customer service that I read about.

The February issue of Business Traveller featured a complaint letter about TAP, as well as letters about poor service from other airlines. All the letters seem to indicate that many staff on the ground and in the air basically could not care less. Airlines, with a few exceptions (such as Emirates) don’t seem to appreciate the fact that, while they offer flat beds and good food in first class and business class, the image of the airline is damaged if frontline customer service staff are disinterested and surly. The only answer airlines have is to throw air miles or money at the problem.

Often, because of the cost, it seems that staff aren’t trained for long enough; though many of the incidents I read about seem to be simply a question of poor manners. We live in a faster, more competitive world, but a pleasant helpful approach and a warm welcome pays dividends.

In 1969 I had a job as a student with a company that catered TAP from LHR. On occasion, I went to the Boeing 727 Europa-Jet to check catering on-board. The food was well prepared, the staff charming and the menu cards had Portuguese themes on them. As Jeff Mills says in his article in the same issue, the flights were “an event” – and everyone was pleasant and helpful, even to me, a lowly catering assistant.

George Banks, West Sussex