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I woke up at 06.00 am in the morning to catch 8 o’clock MAT flight to M. Medhufushi on route to M.Muli myself. Arrived at the cashier at 07.30am and I produced my American Express Credit Card. “ Are you an Indian or Maldivian?”; asked the cashier. Taking a bit of pride in myself I told; “I am Maldivian”. The cashier announced; “ We do not accept credit cards from locals.” By that time I could hear on his radio set someone calling my name. Then there was an announcement on the loud speaker for me. The cashier informed back on radio set; “ He does not have money”. The flight left!

Not knowing what to do with my time sitting at the MAT terminal, I made these notes on my PDA.

1. A badly worn off Maldivian National flag stands by the Maldivian Air Taxi flag in front of the MAT terminal building.

2. MAT sells vacant seats to Maldivians at reduced fares.

3. Maldivian Air Taxi does not accept Credit Cards for payments from Maldivian Citizens.

4. MAT has an in-flight magazine – the featured articles in the present issue are “ Image and Identity”, “The marine Museum”, “Destination Maldives”.

5. MAT has a very welcoming and well furnished terminal building - even better VIP lounges.

6. I overheard a customer complaining because he had been waiting for 3 hours to get to his pre-booked resort island. The guest did not want understand that a flight cannot fly with just one passenger onboard, unless he hires the flight; for that MAT has to wait for other airlines to arrive to gather enough passengers to cover minimum number of seats.

7. MAT has one of their aircrafts brand-design-painted for Hilton World Wide Resorts – I think I saw a VIP lounge as well with a sign board for Hilton guests.

8. I came in contact with Customer Relations Manager Mr Inthikab and one of the Guest Relations Supervisors, Mr Kareem. They were skilled and professional. The flow of routines and service procedures appear to be smooth in flow and techniques.

9. Inside the public toilet – with luxury fixtures - I sat on the WC for a while. I would like to think I am a tall person by Maldivian size BUT whilst seated on the WC my feet could not reach the floor. When I looked at the custom-made-white-bulb-covering directly up it had a design of a coconut tree and a sun engraved on it. Gave a very authentic and Maldivian feel!

10. I remember a day I was escorted by a service agent to a VIP van, then upon arrival to the terminal my bag taken by another agent fast dragged into the VIP lounge, given a Cappuccino and re-escorted to the aeroplane just on time to take off.

In One Sentence; A business like Maldivian Air Taxi exists because of tourism and then eventually consumes resources, environment and way of life to the benefit of its bottom line.

My flight fare was made FOC (free of charge) sometime in the afternoon around 3 pm. The chairs at the terminal building were comfortable, I remember! Mr Kareem, Customer Relations Supervisor, kept re-booking me flight after the flight; by the time I could fly it was 05.30 pm in the afternoon.