Automation and bureaucracy are killing flying skills?  | AeroTime Weekend Special

Sixty years ago, a grapefruit-sized aluminium sphere with six antennas and some tiny solar cells was launched into Earth orbit. The Vanguard 1 satellite is still up there and is the oldest human-made object in space. It’s our first piece of space archaeology. Other early satellites – such as Sputnik 1, the first satellite to leave Earth in 1957, and Explorer 1, the first US satellite – have long since re-entered the atmosphere and burnt up. Vanguard 1’s legacy, as we enter the seventh decade of space travel, is a new generation of small satellites changing the way we interact with space.

It was in the sixties when the airlines took customer service to another level by introducing helpful, smiling stewardesses in mini outfits. The times have changed since then, and while stewardess are still in charge of making a passenger’s trip pleasant, the situation on the ground might be much different. AeroTime talked with Ville Levaniemi to find out the best principles of good customer service in the aviation business – and to answer why is it important?