Around 51 Emirates Airline employees were honoured by Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, chairman and chief executive of the group, for their commitment to excellence and exemplary performance and service to the company’s customers and to their colleagues.

Ten individual and team achievements were acknowledged during the ceremony with three of these stemming from outstanding levels of teamwork.

The honourees were presented with the Najm Chairman’s Award trophy and a monetary gift at the annual ceremony held at the Emirates’ Group headquarters.

The annual Najm (Arabic for ‘star’) Chairman’s Awards recognises the outstanding achievements of Emirates staff around the world. Hundreds of Emirates Group employees are nominated for the coveted award and after a rigorous selection process the winning candidates are named.

This year, the Najm Chairman’s Award winners’ stories ranged from saving lives to forfeiting personal time to help passengers in distress, working in challenging and dangerous environments, to professionalism in highly pressurised and difficult situations.

Najm Chairman’s award winner Hanane Senhaji went the extra mile when she travelled a staggering 1,053 extra miles to help a customer complete her Hajj journey. When an elderly lady from the Philippines was travelling to Jeddah to start her Hajj pilgrimage, she fell ill on board and had to stay in Dubai. When the woman’s health improved, she wanted to complete her pilgrimage but was not allowed to travel alone. Senhaji travelled with the woman to Jeddah, so that this elderly customer could be reunited with her son and complete her pilgrimage.

In another instance, Villajos Gary Almoite and Herald Mendoza Mateo, both coordinators for dnata in Singapore, saved the day when an incoming aircraft missed its assigned spot due to low visibility. Almoite jumped from the belt loader in front of the aircraft and crossed his hands to indicate that the aircraft had to stop. Mateo worked in tandem to raise the air-bridge to stop an imminent collision with the aircraft which was too close. Their swift actions and quick decision making helped ensure the safety of customers, the company said. – TradeArabia News Service