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A SkyWest Birthday by Jerry Cates
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One other potential disadvantage turned out, in SkyWest's case, to be a strong positive. The lone flight attendant aboard has to care for 50 passengers. Being completely in charge of the passenger cabin requires the hostess to exude confidence and savoir-faire. This demands an unusually competent person. SkyWest is highly selective about the hostesses they employ, a fact that was bolstered by our experience on Flight 3929. Our hostess (from Salt Lake City to Calgary) was Yvonne, shown on the right as she began our beverage service. A few minutes after takeoff, the Captain announced over the intercom that we should take special care of Yvonne. "Today," he said, "is her birthday, and this is also the first week of her marriage!" As soon as he finished speaking, Yvonne snapped up the microphone to communicate with the cockpit. Judging from her animation, the captain was getting chewed out for revealing details of her private life to a bunch of perfect strangers.
She beamed a warm smile to each of the passengers as she served them. Look at the photo on the right. Is that a beautiful smile, or what? It looked so genuine, full of honesty and grace. But perhaps she was showing her "hostess" face. Was her smile merely the plastic pretension of a professional greeter, or was it the real thing? Out of the corner of her eye, she was taking note of what I was doing. As she moved closer, her facial expressions passed on the not-too-subtle message that she was not thrilled. Since she frowned every time I took a photo, I worried how friendly she would be when she arrived at our row. I wanted one of her smiles, too, but things were not looking good for that. She had just chewed out the captain. Was I next on her list? |
Janet and I flew
to Calgary, Canada from Austin via Delta's SkyWest Service on December 17.
SkyWest operates an airline subcontracting with Delta, and uses Canadair
Regional Jets for their long-haul routes. The CRJ-50, shown on the left,
carries 50 passengers. We were not sure how we would enjoy flying for
several hours in a relatively small aircraft.
It did not take long to put our concerns aside. The accommodations on board were comfortable and roomy. The only disadvantage was the slightly smaller carry-on racks overhead.
What fun this was! It had all the elements of a good human interest story. I told Janet I was going to take some photos to celebrate Yvonne's birthday. My digital camera allows me to copy onto a separate floppy disk, which I could give Yvonne for her own use. Later, I intended to place them on this website as well. As she got closer I could see that Yvonne was a strikingly attractive young lady. But, as they say, beauty is only skin deep. The true test would be her character. What kind of person was she, really? One thing was clear. If she had a personality even remotely commensurate with her outward beauty, her new husband was a very fortunate fellow, indeed.
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