Couple of days back while I was reading one of the country’s prominent newspapers, I just felt disgraced after reading an article titling “Double Standards” from the section Point Counterpoint. It was an article by Ali Sheikholeslami, where the writer expressed his experience with one of the world’s giant in aviation “Emirates”. Without stretching it further I would like to approach straight to the point for this piece of writing and quoting some vital portion directly from the article.

Writer says:
“.......but my Dubai-Dhaka and Dhaka-Dubai flights were definitely my bitterest experience with the airline (Emirates). Personally, I have been treated well, but their behavior with the Bangladeshi passengers was intolerable. Our hosts talked to the Bangladeshi passengers with zero tolerance, frowned as a normal facial exercise, and never listened to the gentleman who sat beside me with a broken entertainment unit.
I wish I could say that was all. It was the last straw when the man to my right, who occupied an aisle seat, took the handset and asked his friend in the back row, instead of the unhelpful hostess, to help him. The stewardess, who was red with anger, or with chicken pox, or with flying to Dhaka, was marching down that aisle at that precise moment. With no warming, she took the handset from the man in the back and threw it to the man on my right.......”

At this point, I would like to raise a few simple questions. Is this rudeness and humiliating behavior towards Bangladeshi passengers coming from the fact that Bangladesh is a poor country, with a poor population? Who pays the airfare, or have Emirates or their crew subsidized the fare to help the Bangladeshi economy? Or is it by any chance these passengers’ language that tries the crew’s patience, because some of them do not speak English? Or maybe the color of skin is still an issue with the respectable airline.

Passengers choose specific airline more or less because of the service quality it provides. Is it really expected from “Emirates”, which had already been decorated a couple of times as the world’s best airline, to humiliate their guests, the passengers whom they ought to help and be hospitable to, and who are providing the funds for their salaries? The writer of the article said that he would no more advocate for the decorated airline. Word of mouth from loyal customers is an asset, Mr. Emirates, and I am afraid you are losing out on that.