Walk The Talk

Every CEO of every organisation in the world will tell you how great they treat their employees. Claims that will not withstand a one hour scrutiny of their HR departments' policies and procedures or they way these policies and procedures are administered. Statements made for public consumption.

I always maintained that an airline, more than any other business in the world, is about people. It is never about airplanes or assets. It is the employees and how they interact together and with the passengers. A work ethic that every work group in the organisation is equally important and that an employee once trained is trusted to do what, in his best judgement, is right for the company's best interest at a given situation.

Very few airlines or organisations really "Walk the Talk".

One that shines is Southwest Airlines (SWA), 35000 happy employees (mostly unionised) who helped SWA carry 101.9 million passengers in 2008 (in 2008, the second carrier was AA at 92.772 million passengers) on board 544 B737 narrow body aircraft (AA has 608 including a large portion being wide bodies). More so, 2008 marked the 36th consecutive year of profitability at SWA since its inception on 18 June 1971. Pretty impressive, huh.

What is really impressive, is to hear Ms Colleen Barrett, President of Southwest Airlines talk about the employees being the highest priority and that she spends 85% of her time delivering "proactive customer service to the employees" (click here to hear Colleen Barrett on "Servant Leadership" from KnowledgeAtWharton) and if everyone else does their job right you have success.

WOW, 85% of the President's time delivering "proactive customer service to the employees", go figure. And darn it, it works very well at and for what is definitely the most successful airline in the world.

That is really Walking the Talk.

Finally, She Flew

Finally, the Dreamliner flew, a little late, but it flew. On December 15th 2009 the B787 Dreamliner had its first flight. The aircraft is almost an all composites aircraft and Boeing had design issues and workload issues, the B747-8 the latest variant of the venerable B747 has still to fly.

Boeing had to delay the first flight 6 times in the last 2 years until they got the right fix. Airlines were unhappy about the delays, but then the Recession hit and it was not all that bad, considering there were discussions about compensations.

The B787 has leading edge technologies (click here for details) incorporated in the design. However, the most important feature is the composite content of the aircraft, which has caused some of the delays. An almost all composite aircraft poses problems in maintainability and repairabilty of the structure. This requires development of new repairs and specialised training.

The coming few months of flight testing will be prove the new technologies and it should be very interesting .

Finally, she flew, Boeing has always been known to design beautiful airplanes and the Dreamliner follows this tradition very sleek lines and performance and handling that matches it.

Deliveries

Since 2005 I was involved in about twelve and a half (12.5) deliveries, aircraft deliveries that is. The bulk happened at Airbus at their Toulouse facility. I enjoy Toulouse, such a historic place with a young population, full of university students. Great countryside and not too bad weather.

Three other deliveries happened in Barcelona. Definitely one of my favorite places. The place brims with diversity, from people to architecture to food. A place where the sea meets the mountains, the old meets and coexists with the new.

However, 2009 brought in new deliveries in terms of type; from commercial to VIP and at totally new locations.

Two EMBRAER Legacy 600s from Sao Jose Dos Campos in Brazil. A city that lies in the middle of rolling green hills and beautiful countryside. An aircraft delivery is an aircraft delivery is an aircraft delivery, what changes in a VIP interior is the emphasis on the quality of the cabin. No big deal, well actually it is a big deal, it looks at a totally different level of comfort and quality.

Finally, this brings us to the HALF delivery, it is a green aircraft!

Noooo, nothing to do with the environment, it is green because it has no interior installed. The final acceptance will be performed after completion of the interior installation. This one happened to be in Hamburg. This is my first visit to Hamburg, the city architecture is diverse and so is the landscape, rivers, canals, lakes and the sea. At this time Hamburg is in a festive mood with Christmas just round the corner. The Christmas Market, an open market, was crowded in spite of the rain and a Sunday evening. Gluehweine (hot wine punch) and generous portions of sausages and ham sandwiches seemed to be the favorites of the crowd. Christmas trees were all over the city including the container terminal at the Port of Hamburg.

Deliveries are highly technical and contractual events but that should in no way detract from enjoying the cultural aspects of cities like Toulouse, Barcelona, Sao Jose Dos Campos and Hamburg.

This That and The Other

The last 10 days or so have been very bizarre. A long holiday the start of which coincided with Thanksgiving. Two holidays, Eid al Adha and Thanksgiving, two occasions for men and women to give thanks for the bounties God has given us.

It all started the evening before the holidays when Dubai World announced it wants to defer 60 Billion USD in debt for six months, the greatest faux pas in PR history. WOW, what were you thinking Dubai, by the time the holidays are over, all will be forgotten and life resumes normally. Well, the world freaked, a story like that and no one available for comment, not even the janitor, for 10 days. It did not help that Dubai disowned its off spring. As expected Dubai bashing restarted in the western press in earnest, stories like the city built on the sand, which assets Dubai will lose to Abu Dhabi but the best one was this crisis would derail the world economic recovery. Huh, 60 Billion USD in deferment will derail the world, what about the trillions lost and others spent for the bail out all over the world, get real people. Eventually cooler heads prevailed and the world settled down in anticipation.

All that while, the UAE celebrated the 38th anniversary of the union. A celebration which was nothing like the previous 13 I witnessed here. Emaraties expressed so much pride in their country, union and culture, a real coming of age.

Of course I did not get 10 days of holidays, private sector you know, The three days between Eid and National days were so full and hectic having to cope with the introduction of 2 new aircraft types in 6 months.

Of course it was not all work work, on National Day we had a Tweetup at Wild Peeta, great company, great fun and so diverse.

All in all a fun week or so, but really weird, freaky weird.

National Day

Tomorrow December 2, 2009 marks the 38th National Day of The United Arab Emirates (UAE). The only true and successful union in the Arab World. The result of the Vision of Sheikh Zayed of Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Rashed of Dubai (may they rest in peace) that forged a federal union of seven emirates known at the time as the trucial states. A vision that transformed a desert into one of the most dynamic and visionary countries in the world.

I arrived to the UAE in 1996 at the time of the 25th anniversary and was fortunate enough to witness and experience and may be contribute in a small way to its development. The change in the last 13 years was staggering and amazing. A vision so powerful, it galvanised Emaratis and Expatriates alike.

The UAE is a country that is tolerant towards religion, life styles and most expatriates' idiosyncrasies. This tolerance provides an environment that promotes a very comfortable life style, which is rarely found in any other country, just ask any expatriate that has returned home.

It is a tribute to the Rulers and Emaraties who along with millions of expatriates, have sustained, nurtured and developed the original vision that created this great nation.

Finally, thank you to all Emaraties for making us feel welcome and at home, in spite of our diverse life styles.

Wishing you all a Happy National Day