Coming down on its international flight members, Air India has served a warning to all its flight attendants after a hotel in London complained that some crew members would bring boxes to pack and take away food from the breakfast buffet table to be eaten later.
According to a Times of India report, the warning note, titled ‘A buffet is not a takeaway’ was sent on Monday by an assistant general manager (AGM) of the in-flight service department.
“We have received an unfortunate email from the management of hotel (name) in London stating that some AI crew members regularly come down for breakfast with empty boxes into which they fill food items from the buffet, presumably to eat later,” the warning note was quoted by Times of India as saying.
The AI management said that even though “it could be a very small minority indulging in such behaviour”, it would still be forced to take serious disciplinary action against the offenders.
Meanwhile, an Air India spokesperson said that “the letter appears to be fake because an AGM-grade officer is not authorised to send a circular that has pan India implications. We are investigating the issue”.
However, cabin crew members of AI confirmed about receiving the letter and said that the AGM concerned was promoted to the said post only 15 days ago.
The decision by the AGM of the inflight service department, Navaz Mody, to issue a general warning to all crew members has gone down well. “There are a few rotten apples everywhere, not just among cabin crew members,” said a senior cabin member.
While the AI crew members slammed the allegations of takeaways from the buffet table, they pointed to few factors that could have got this practice going.
“We land in London either at 7.30am or 6.30pm. We are dead tired by then as it's 14-15 hours from the time we have left home. So we just want to crash. Unlike earlier when the layover was 2 days, it's now only 26 hours and so we have to catch up on sleep before the next flight. Even so, only a couple of us would be bringing boxes to fill and eat later. Most don't do that,” said a crew member.
