Eighteen-Hundred years ago the disciples of the
Persian prophet Mani, sat by his feet as he made his historical statement about
the four great kingdoms of the time, The Persian, The Roman, The Chinese and
The Axumites…
I walked towards the ticket counter at Dulles Airport, and was
greeted by the ticket agent at the counter. Having experienced rude ticket
agents for the past three years thanks to United Airways and “Fly America Act”,
it was a pleasant surprise to finally encounter a normal, friendly airline
employee who was not stressed out about providing service. The ticket agents
were the employees of Ethiopian Airlines, and within a few minutes I got my
assigned seat and my luggage taken care of. 
Steeped in facts and mythology, Ethiopia and Ethiopians are
part of an ancient civilization that stretches thousands of years. They have
survived as a people and civilization, whether they were the great ancient
Axumite Kingdom or the nation that gave us coffee, or the country that defeated
Italy in 1896, escaped colonization with Emperor Haile Selassie, survived the Derg and
recently experiencing the bane of tribalism nevertheless they survive and
strive.
I walked into the plane and was greeted by the flight attendant
who showed me to my seat. I took my seat and eventually our flight took off for
Addis Ababa. During the flight I looked around the plane, in front of me was an
old lady who looked stressed and kept on asking the flight attendant questions
and asking for help, there was the couple with crying babies and
finally the man who kept on getting up and opening his overhead compartment to
take something from his bag!! Each and every one received the attention. During
the flight I did not see flight attendant disrespect anyone and in fact they
kept a smiling and respectful demeanor for the duration of the flight, which is
long and tiring!
Ethiopian airlines, despite its limited resources as
compared to its counterparts around the world, has had a tremendous effect on
airline travel specially in Africa, connecting countries, people and delivering
cargo, in an often challenging environment. If its ticket agents, flight
attendants and pilots were indicative of the company culture then Ethiopian
Airlines will have a bright future ahead. I would like to suggest to United
Airline to look to Ethiopian Airways for training its ticket agents and flight
attendants!!!
As I ate my lunch listening to the great Ethipian singer, Mahmoud Ahmed sing the classic song, “Tizita”,
I imagined the Persian prophet, Mani and
wondered whether the descendants of the Kingdom
of Axum could one day become a great power again but this time up in the skies. 
No comments:
Post a Comment