Riau Airlines: High-flying low-flow

It’s no secret that running an airline can be a dirty job – just look at the myriad problems facing BA – but that adage takes on a whole new meaning at Riau Airlines.

According to reports in the Indonesian press, Riau chairman Teguh Triyanto has implemented a tough new policy forcing all senior staff to clean his fleet’s toilets once a week.

The logic is sound enough: motivate the rank-and-file by showing that top brass are willing to get their hands dirty. It’s so compelling, in fact, that we’ve decided to run a poll.

Speaking to The Jakarta Globe last week, Mr Triyanto explained: “We are trying to demonstrate that in addition to safety, passenger comfort is our Number One priority.”

Next to a picture of him stooping down beside an aircraft toilet, the airline boss announced that every week he and ten other directors will take turns cleaning on-board loos.

Of course the job is a relatively modest one – Riau Airlines has just five Fokker-50 planes and two British Aerospace 146s – but we at Cheapflights applaud the sentiment.

Indeed we’re so impressed by Mr Triyanto’s dedication that we’re conducting a little survey. While you often hear about sub-standard cleanliness at hotels, relatively few reports probe the level of sanitation on commercial aircraft – and Cheapflights reckons it’s time someone kicks up a stink.

Help up by heading over to news.cheapflights.co.uk/poll and taking part in our Airplane Germs poll. It’ll only take a second, and we’ll update you on the results next month.

© Cheapflights Ltd (Creative Commons image: Julo / Wikimedia)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 6:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.