Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal is one of the largest and oldest credible institutions with the 60 glorious years of the history. This is single institutions with the authority to manage all the aircraft and air transports service of Nepal. The only one international airport has been operating under this authority. It has been coordinating with all national and international airlines and providing the uninterrupted services. In spite of the limited physical infrastructures and climatic challenges the services have been providing by CAAN to its clients is praise worthy. CAAN has been coordinating more than 200 different types of institutions inside the Tribhuwan International Airport. More than 1500 staff members representing various organizations have been working everyday inside the airport.
TIA is a gate way to Nepal for foreigners who want to visit Nepal as well as Nepalese who wants to visit foreign countries. Everyday more than 50,000 people travel from this international airport. This is a means of international connection for Nepal.
Any travelers who are traveling for the first time by plane; they visit through TIA and develop the initial perception for Nepal and Nepalese society. The dealing, behavior, service qualities and internal decoration of the airport determines to develop the perception about the airport and Nepalese society. The dealing and behavior of TIA is a window to the Nepalese society. The internal facilities including quality of the goods, prices and physical as well as social environment available inside airport also contribute passengers to shape their perception.
Since Nepal is one of the key members of the global community, the travelers compare the TIA services with other international airport service they traveled. Primarily, the travelers concerned go with the behavior aspects of the staff members and then they observe the facilities and airport environment. Basically, the infrastructure and other physical facilities don’t make such big difference for the travelers if they received the respected, authentic and accountable response from airport authority and staff members. The airport authorities have been tried to improve both physical and service qualities of airport since long period. After appointment of new ministers in the culture, civil aviation and tourism ministry, the minister gives the high priority to the airport. However, not so significant changes have been observed in the airport. The previous ministers focused on the infrastructure aspects and formed various commissions to find out the major weakness and problems of the airport and their remedy. Hardly any reports’ recommendations for improvement have been implemented.
After appointment of Mr. Yogesh Kumar Bhattarai as a Cultural, Civil Aviation and Tourism ministers, he started to collect the public views about to strengthen the quality of services of TIA. He received more than one hundred thousand responses. His team analyzed the public feedback and found that the quality in the airport can be improved by changing the attitude of the staff members rather focusing on other sectors. He has gone through several round meetings with the airport authorities and also discussed with the experts of Appreciative Inquiry. He suggested airport management to conduct the “Appreciative Inquiry to Foster the Positive Thinking Training” for all agencies staff members of the airport. Honorable Minister asked Dr. RC Lamichhane and his team to conduct the training to whole staff of the airport.
Mr. Rajkumar Chhetri, the General Manager of TIA and his team organized the training for 1500 staff members on September 1-6, 2019 for six days. Honorable Minister Yogesh Bhattarai inaugurated the program and Appreciative Inquiry Expert Dr. RC Lamichhane and Mr. Sudhan Gyawali facilitated the program for six days and total 1467 staff members have been trained. This is the first positive thinking enhancing training ever organized for all staff members in airport.
The whole system of the airport was in the training hall and benefited to develop the same alignment of the thinking for positive transformation of airport. As single cell of the body has vital role to keep the body fit and fine, the intention, thinking, behavior and personal values of each single staff plays pivotal roles for positive transformation of the airport management. The positive efforts of the airport staff members can create the new realities and create new brand image of the airport. The energy and attitude of the participants observed in the training hall was very positive and enthusiastic.
According to Mr. Rajkumar Khatri, the general manager of the Airport received very inspiring feedback from his team members. The participants of the training expressed cordial gratitude to Minister and airport management team for organizing such praiseworthy training for the first time in the airport history. He reflected that his colleagues shared this training has enhanced the creative and innovative thinking skill and develop the attitude of yes we can. The participants have promised to bring the drastic change by next three months in service delivery aspect. Mr. Mohan Bhujel the retired police officer and staff member of sky chef found that this training has unleashed the hidden potential and open the new route for positive thinking. This training has taught to develop the thinking process based on self and organization positive cores. According to Mr. Ramesh Kumar Mahat, the Air traffic controller, the big realization from the training is understood the power of the self-respect for the quality of the life. Ms. Reshu singh the station manager of the Turkish Airlines found this training has inspired to search the positivity in any adverse situation. If the participants followed the shared ideas, the outlook and quality of the service of the airport will be drastically changed by coming 3 months.
Mr Sanjaya Kumar the head of RCC department found that if the participants accepted the ideas that will help to transform the personal as well as professional life. This training has taught to understand the role of team work and trust of team members for TIA transformation. Mr. Pratap Babu Tiwari the deputy general manager of the airport found that this training has increased the feeling of cohesiveness and interdependence amongst the various organization staff member and that gave rise to a greater bond for team performance. The station manager of Druk air also found that training has encouraged to think creative and innovative way to convert the problems into opportunities.
The participants found that the airport management has introduced new approach to empower and unleash the positive potential of staff members. They further added that for the first time airport management accepted the staff members as the change makers rather than the machine and buildings. The training has increased the ownership of staff members and made more accountable for the quality of the services. Such program should be continued and performance of the staff members need to be monitored regularly and evaluated periodically. The Airport strategic plan must be developed in same alignment of the thinking so that the plan can accommodate all the creative ideas of the staff members unleashes all the positive potential of staff members and whole organizations.
