British Airways could be on the lookout for flight and cabin crew who can juggle, perform song-and-dance routines and crack gags - and this is no joke.
Passengers on a Deutsche BA flight from Munich to Berlin were reported this weekend to be startled to hear a steward announce: "Welcome to New York." It was meant to be funny! The German subsidiary of British Airways is deploying a new weapon - humour - in its battle for customers.
"We are not telling staff that they have to tell jokes, because not everyone can be spontaneously funny," says Jochen Ziegler, in charge of the company's 300 flight attendants. But if they can make people laugh, we want to encourage it. We want them to sparkle."
British Airways, which owns a 65% stake in Deutsche BA, is studying the experiment to see whether the light-hearted approach should be extended to its own international flights.
Among the lines set to make passengers chuckle are announcements such as:
* Do not smoke in groups in the toilets
* Switch off "mobile phones, computers and washing machines" to avoid interfering with the plane's controls.
* Pay attention to routine safety announcements as they will be tested afterwards.
Passengers between Cologne and Munich watch a double-act in which the purser calls out to a colleague to "go into the cellar" to fetch more drinks. The colleague promptly plunges beneath the drinks trolley. The flight attendants have also been juggling oranges to amuse passengers.
Emirates flight attendant Fiona Jeffery is game for a laugh trying out a routine to suit rivals British Airways. BA was unable to pose for pictures due to a lack of humour by the airline's corporate press office, which refused permission to co-operate.
Source: Flight Daily News
