Sorry folks,
no more
parachutes
- ha, ha, ha
by Peter Conradi |
| |
| PASSENGERS on a Deutsche |
| BA flight from Munich to Ber- |
| lin were startled to hear a stew- |
| ard announce: "Welcome to |
| New York." It was meant to be a |
| joke: 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 sponta- |
| neously funny," said Jochen |
| Ziegler, in charge of the |
| company's 300 stewards and |
| stewardesses. "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 ap- |
| proach should be extended to |
| its own international flights. |
| Deutsche BA passengers |
| have been treated to displays of |
| juggling with oranges, warned |
| "not to smoke in groups in the |
| toilets" and told to switch off |
| their "mobile phones, compu- |
| ters and washing machines" to |
| avoid interfering with the |
| plane's controls. They have |
| also been instructed to pay |
| attention to routine safety |
| announcements as they will be |
| tested afterwards. |
