ZAAthee

It is true that everything is personal. You start your life as a baby and you prefer some shiny toy when another baby might prefer the noisy one.

The now so famous "blue and yellow" ATR has brought out the "preferences" in the Maldivian pilots like never before. Is it because TMA pays more? Or is it because IAS guys are so frustrated with the situation they were in few months back? Maybe the twin otter flying is becoming too boring for some senior Maldivian pilots? The bags just keep getting heavier don't they? Everybody will have their own reasons.

One thing is for sure though: The ATR will be operated by TMA and TMA will be managed by the same management.

The Same Management Who:

1. Is refusing the pilots their medical pay. Any days applied as sick leave is not being paid for. The genius behind this concept is CFO Ranjit who is so shit scared of the Tamil Tigers back home he has a standing order of $1500 from his account to some account in UK named under V. Prabakaran
The pilots are ofcourse are keeping silent on this matter yet because they have been assured by Ishan he will try his best to reform this policy which he himself and many others believe is against the Maldivian Employment Regulation published in http://www.employment.gov.mv/Resources/Employment_Regulation.pdf
Two of the pilots were docked more than 2 weeks pay because they couldn't report to work as they were unfortunately infected with chicken pox.
Msg. to Ishan: This cannot go on for long... Remember how you reacted when the management tried to discriminate you and other Maldivians on 5 and 1? We, the pilots are planning a similar "action" on a pre-concluded date.

2. HAVE FAILED TO LIFT THE ATR OF ITS WHEELS FOR MORE THAN 2 MONTHS RUNNING.
Anybody who has read more than 2 articles on this blog must know by now that Bram is just a dictator and he doesn't care much for his management team's views or suggestions. Unless ofcourse these views and suggestions are similar to his own.
Bram was well informed about the requirements for the AOC and yet he went against his management and brought the airplane to Male' in a rush just to please the board of directors. What did his management team do? Just kept quiet.
I think keeping quiet is the best thing they do when it comes to Bram.

3. DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT AVIATION.
Lets start with the MD, Bram Steller, a commercially driven, highly marketing man who keeps a thick blanket over the real picture beneath. The first thing that he did when he joined TMA was to paint the bodies of the old, rusty twin otters with flashy yellow colors to attract the tourists. Who knew that absolutely nothing was done "underneath" and the planes are in the same condition or worse after more than 3 years of the dictator's reign.

History: Year 2000 BRAM STELLER director for sales, marketing and service delivery at Kenya Airways.
Year 2004 Mr Bram Steller, Executive Vice-President (Commercial), JetAirways
Bram Steller was also Vice President (Commercial) KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

Did you notice the word "commercial" or "marketing" in his title? Why in god's name is a a person with such "commercial" background filling the position of Managing Director of an airline with such a unique operation?

I guess now you won't be so surprised if he asks "..why do the pilots land the airplanes on one float on windy days?"

Director Marketing and Sales, Ahemd Latheef. "Serial Number Plate". Do I need to say more?

Chief Finance Officer, Ranjit Kumar. Not his favourite but still one of Bram's puppets. He was just an accountant when first joined TMA and now he is the CFO in a short time. Poor guy doesn't know anything about management and he is incharge of HR. He is screwing up so much because he just doesn't know anything but accounts. For him employee's medical leave has to be a "simultaneous equation" or a "balanced audit sheet". The guy can think only in numbers.

Flight Operations Manager, Mohamed Mansoor. Paid less than his subordinates and yet follows MD's every instruction to the last word. "Keeping his mouth shut" is what he does best when it comes to any situation. Some of the IAS guys thinks Mansoor can deliver what he is promising them to fly the ATR. Good luck guys! By the way, I hope you know who the favourite puppet is?

Safety Manager, Ibrahim Khalid. Perhaps the man with most potential on Bram's management team. If only he would get of his butt and do his job once in a while!! Has anybody ever seen him get onto an aircraft unless he is actually going on a trip? Has he actually talked to any of the pilots (except Ishan) unless the cause is for investigating and incident? I think we have the most passive safety manager of all time. The only time he is seen working hard is when a cabin attendant accidentally drops a bag in the water.

And finally, our boss, Deputy Chief Pilot, Hussain Ishan. Chief Pilot? Acting Chief Pilot? Training Captain? DCP? Line Captain? Line indoc Captain? Dude, how many jobs do you have? No wonder people say you try to show that you are "Mr. Nice Guy". Anyway we all know that you are just filling that seat(s) so that you can get an easy ticket onto the ATR. Hope this article doesn't ruin it for you.

I better stop writing or else nobody is going to read because this is getting wat too looong!

So remember, Everything IS Personal!!