How women held the fort at AirAsia India during the pandemic
A year into the pandemic, two leaders at AirAsia India share how they navigated the challenges brought on by COVID-19, and how they kept their teams motivated despite the uncertainty.
The year 2020 rang in with a lot of uncertainty with the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreading from Wuhan, China to across the world. It was not a normal year of operations, especially so for the airline industry as most international and domestic borders had begun to shut down to curb the spread of the virus.
About a year later, Santosh Chand, Head of Customer Happiness at AirAsia India recalls the initial days of the COVID-19 outbreak as “a different era” – one that began with a barrage of customer queries across channels for her and her team.
“It (COVID-19) suddenly changed everything. It was frustrating for the internal teams as it was for the customers reaching out to us,” Santosh tells HerStory, as a matter-of-fact.
Megha Singhania heads the airline’s cabin crew in India where 75 percent of the workforce comprise women. Both the leaders share that the past year has been a first-of-its-kind challenge over a decade’s experience in the aviation industry, and how they traversed through one of the most uncertain times.
Dealing with the pandemic frenzy
Consistency at work became a mounting challenge as regulatory guidelines kept changing in response to the crisis.
Santosh recalls, “With the lockdown happening in phases for two months, customer queries and requests kept pouring as I and my team dealt with not just the unprecedented time but unprecedented volumes of customer requests, complaints, and queries on refund and cancellations.”
At such a time when the workload had increased exponentially, she had to deal with the unusual challenge of managing her team remotely from her home in Bengaluru.
Simultaneously, it was important for her to take care of the employees’ mental health. “They were burning out and had to deliver,” she adds.
Besides organising wellness sessions like yoga, Santosh made it a point to have coffee sessions with family members of each staff, and thanked them for their support throughout the extra hours, overnight, and the weekends they spent working.
Santosh says mental agility proved to be highly important. “I was very overwhelmed in the beginning and it took a toll on my health, but those are the times you have to take the ownership and deliver no matter what. Even when we get to rest for a couple of hours, there is so much anxiety because there is so much to do,” she shares.
The team also organised interactive sessions among its team members where they could open up about their personal and professional lives without the fear of being judged.
Buckling up with safety
The seriousness of the pandemic fell upon Indians with a thud when Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 24 last year. The aviation industry, however, had been feeling the ripple effects of the coronavirus pandemic as international borders shut down one after another, and the number of flight bookings decreased with restrictions already in place.
Safety precautions had started to become the talk of the town in January 2020 – two months before the novel coronavirus was declared a pandemic. Megha recalls the Ministry of Civil Aviation instructing airline companies to wear masks and incorporate that as a practice in the standard operating procedure.
As a leader, Megha said it was crucial to address any concerns the employees had and not keep them pending. Clear communication was especially important during the pandemic as there were doubts regarding layoffs and salary cuts.
She adds, “We assured them that people might travel less but they will eventually travel and made efforts to boost the employees’ morale. We also had few sessions of just chatting and having coffee together online, and programmes on makeup, health, and yoga. We saw each other more often on zoom calls than we usually do at work.”
Meanwhile, the cabin crew members were offered online training to ensure they are well-versed with the procedures despite facing a nearly three-month gap with the fleet grounded.
While travelling and movement of any kind was considered dangerous, Megha felt it was important to convince the crew members that travelling by air was still the safest way. She explains that the air on a flight is filtered two to three times every minute, and once the staff members are assured of it, they can do a better job of allaying the fears of their family members as well as passengers on board.
The crew members were also offered pick-up and drop service to work, were sanitised often, and made to wear PPE gowns over their uniform. Working with members between the age group of 18 and 25, she says hearing their opinions and suggestions also made things easier.
Even as they go about the new normal routine, the leaders say they are encouraging the organisation to induct more women.
Edited by Kanishk Singh