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Air India staff marks Onam in novel way

According to Air India Manager for Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, Bharat Chaturvedi, the novel initiative of arranging a 'pookollam' (flower carpet) at the entrance to the office and having all the 12 ladies working there dressed up in the traditional 'kasava mundu' saris came from the staff who felt that it would greatly enhance customer interest and appreciation, given the fact that a sizeable chunk of the airline's customers is from Kerala. The festive ambience will continue until today, he said.

"We have been receiving lots of appreciation for our efforts and customers on Kerala-bound flights were also given an 'Onasadhya' meal inflight for three days. It is very important for us in the airline industry to keep a finger on the pulse of the community we serve and I think that is what we have done here," said Sujata Manian, supervisor of the Air India sales office in Abu Dhabi.

Mr Chaturvedi remarked that although the first week of September was usually lean season, with most holiday traffic having already returned, there had been a significant increase this year for this period, owing to the harvest festival, which had seen at least 500 passengers more during the festival days on Kerala-bound flights than in the first week of September last year.

He noted that the airline presently had five weekly flights from Abu Dhabi to Calicut, seven weekly flights to Cochin and three weekly flight to Trivandrum.

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