Michael Karam: Personal touch will go a long way if Middle East Airlines can adopt it

Last month yet another bout of air rage broke out aboard a Middle East Airlines flight to London with two male passengers fighting after one of them had allegedly abused a member of the cabin crew.

The incident, like previous ones, was caught on a passenger’s camera and went viral. Not good PR either for Middle East Airlines (MEA) or its home country Lebanon.

I am sure the men involved are probably mortified at their behaviour. Flying may be the safest form of travel, but it can still bring out all sorts of anxieties in seemingly solid people. You do not have to suffer from a full-on phobia to be nervous. Let’s face it. Whatever the statistics say, you are still in a piece of aluminium hurtling along at 850kph at 35,000 feet in the air.

I know a man who is particularly afraid of flying. His wife tells me that he will decide by hearing the captain’s welcome if the man is either up to job or a complete imbecile. He listens for anything that might tell him if the pilot is responsible or reckless, an old hand or fresh out of the flight simulator. He especially listens to how serious the captain is when explaining the safety guidelines.

Does he just do it as a matter of routine or is there a genuine sense of commitment to making sure he does not fly the plane into the side of mountain? Funnily enough, he does not mind if a woman is flying the plane, arguing that they are generally more responsible; that she probably would not have been out all night partying.

I generally fly on three airlines: British Airways, easyJet and MEA. The first two do a brilliant job in making passengers feel engaged with what is going on. The captain or co-pilot will introduce themselves and the cabin crew, always a “fabulous team” led by an equally wonderful senior cabin crew member or cabin service director, as they are called on long-haul flights.

The budget airline easyJet is particularly good at this bit of customer service. The planes have a quick turnaround, so it is a case of getting people on and off as efficiently as possible and preparing the aircraft for the return leg. There can be no time for standing on ceremony or not mucking in, and this generally leads to a more positive atmosphere. In this case, cheap really is cheerful.

Which brings me to Middle East Airlines (MEA), whose flights can be quite fraught. The Lebanese, despite their millennia-old obsession with travel, can be a complete nightmare. There are a lot of transit passengers going to or returning from the United States and Canada. Travelling light is total anathema and more often than not, what passes for cabin luggage is open to the widest interpretation, leading to chaos in the overhead lockers. They also tend to travel as families, with kids loaded up on as much sugar as possible in a misguided attempt to appease boredom. No wonder then that by the time the aircraft is ready for take-off, the place is like a tinderbox in a wood store.

All this tension could be alleviated if there was more interaction between those on the flight deck and the cabin crew and the passengers. There was a time when an MEA captain would always introduce himself by name. Now, more often than not, passengers are greeted with an anonymous and gravelly “this is your captain” and the feeling is more of a rank than a human being. We are never introduced to the cabin crew, another factor that not only contributes to a sense of “them and us”, but also what appears to be air of utter disdain for the passengers as they go about the business of serving. To be honest I am surprised there are not more fights.

The MEA chairman Mohamad El Hout has done an impressive job in bringing the airline out of the red and turning a profit. Now he should send around a memo about being more cheerful. Trust me, it will make a world of difference.

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