Is it possible for a national carrier to be socially minded both in terms of its hiring practices and pricing mechanisms? Oman Air and Gulf Air seem to be making interesting headway in this regard.
"Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, has extended its special 'International Student Fares' into the New Year for Omani students between the ages of 12 and 25 who are enrolled in a full-time educational institution. This value added offer will allow students to benefit from reduced fares up to 25% on both domestic and international flights to any of the Airline's 41 destinations across the globe."
Perhaps such practices exist in other region's and I simply haven't heard of them yet, but I think this it's a great way for a carrier that is based in a part of the world where 50% of the population is under the age of 30 to adjust to demographic realities, assist young consumers and enhance brand equity (hopefully increase market share too).
From the labour market side, Gulf Air has made it a priority to give women a greater role in the workforce. The carrier recently hired its third group of six Bahraini female cabin crew to its network.
"The recruitment and training of Bahraini female cabin crew is a joint-initiative run by the airline and Tamkeen, an independent government authority that aims at improving Bahraini employability, job creation and social support, to encourage more Bahrainis, particularly females, to join the national carrier in key customer-facing positions such as flight crew by offering flexible scheduling benefits."
Perhaps such practices will set a new standard for corporate social responsibility which takes into account regional/national circumstances and hopefully consumers reward such behavior.
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