We were on a flight back from New Zealand recently and the aircraft had a technical issue.
There was confusion in the beginning – delays, rolling updates, uncertainty. But then the Air New Zealand crew sprung into action.
The check in crew took ownership and apologized. They said meal vouchers would be ready, and before you knew it, they were.
Within an hour, they’d run a parallel exercise of figuring out if there was another plane available. It was, and they got it ready faster than fixing the original aircraft.
Four hours in, we were on our way.
Meanwhile, they said everybody who had a connection would hear from them by the time we landed. The team worked on rebooking connections through the entire flight and let people know when they got it done.
As people had already eaten dinner by the time we flew, they made it easy for everybody to sleep by saying – “If you really want dinner, open your tray table. Otherwise, we’ll assume you want to sleep.”
A team’s reaction to a stimulus is often more a reflection of their values and state of mind than the stimulus itself.
The stimulus here was an unexpected delay. The response was ownership, clear communication, and effort.
Well played Air New Zealand.
A Learning a Day 