Airline personnel's lack of customer savvy

Domestic travel and tourism in the Philippines can never be more fun if we do not upgrade the quality of service among our ground staff and airborne attendants. In fact, as it is, traveling is more pain and worry, more irritation and vexations. Whether it's a disaster or flight delays, the airline personnel in this country have a long, long way to go to be at par with competitive global standards, and rising customer expectations. Despite all public relations efforts, and notwithstanding all the airline management's initiatives to combat the growing anti-airline sentiments among our riding public, customer service in the Philippine stinks. The Department of Tourism seems to ignore the most fundamental things.

I am a frequent traveler and I do fly almost every weekend these days, lecturing for the Pre-Bar Examinations in no less than 12 universities and various law review centers all around the country. My findings are almost the same. Airport personnel are not polite to travelers. Airline staff on the ground do not have the most fundamental traits and character of customer-orientation. The airline personnel do not treat customers with respect. They give the impression that they only want their business without giving proper customer service.

The worst that I experienced is in the most congested airport in the whole world, the so-called Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport in Tacloban, which may also qualify as the most neglected airport in the Philippines. The airport authorities are oblivious to the fact that five planeloads of passengers are being jampacked at 6pm in an area that is good only for one planeload. The temperature is at boiling point. The passengers are sitting on the floor. The toilets are stinking. And stores are selling food at very exorbitant prices right near the toilets. The business is good but the people are suffering in hunger and anger. It was a very bad Sunday evening. Tempers were at high frequency but nobody was appeasing us. The airline personnel, the airport staff were all inept.

The two airline companies were making a lot of money from passengers who suffer a five-hour waiting time because of delays. They bite more than they can chew, they schedule flights when they do not have enough aircraft. Every hour, they announce an hour and forty-five minute delay. They seem not to know the Bill of Rights of passengers. They did not offer food, especially to those who were travelling on limited budget. The small food stores in the corners near the toilet was raking in a lot of money from starving passengers. It was a chaos.

The airline staff who could not pronounce the words correctly (or was it the dilapidated sound system?), kept on mouthing their mantra, every so often, that there shall be more delays due to “operational requirements”, whatever that means, and the other airline put it more traditionally, “due to late arrival of the turn-around aircraft.” These people are entrusted to talk to paying passengers. They were not even trained to explain what is the meaning of “operational requirements.” This kind of hackneyed approach adds more insult to injury. It exacerbates the anger of the paying public.

Or, to put it bluntly, is it really the fault of the staff, or should we blame the airline management and airport authorities, the government agencies regulating this industry, who all do not have even a basic respect for the rights of the riding public? I shall pause for a reply.