How I really ended up in the hotel business

Lufthansa 737-200 Landshut – hostage plane in Mogadishu in 1977

No, I was not a passenger of the above plane of Lufthansa which was hijacked in 1977, in fact I was not even born at that time yet. But this exact plane will play a huge role in my decision to join the hospitality and travel industry.

You probably think now, what the heck is he talking about. Let me take you back to the summer of 1989.

I was an 11 year old boy growing up in my 300 people village in the southeast of Austria. All my childhood I was different to the other children in the village with the urge to explore the world and experience travel. My summer holidays usually were filled with family visits in other parts of Austria driving long hours but this time my godmother and my uncle invited me to take my first ever flight in my life from Graz in Austria to Frankfurt Germany, alone meaning all by myself!

Boy I was excited, finally I will see the world, finally I will be on a plane and little did I know at that moment that I will spend the majority of my adulthood at airports and on planes.

So here I was, an 11 year old taking his first ever flight! My parents brought me to the airport, handed me over to an airport attendant who hang an envelope with all my documents on my neck, and he was also the one who “took me away” from my parents and sat me directly on the plane. I won’t go into details on how my parents reacted at the airport but you can only imagine if an 11 year old travels alone on a plane for the very first time, how nervous and emotional your parents could get.

I was very excited, my dream finally came true, I was on a plane. And I can see that on an album I created with photos of my canon camera, which by the way took 2 weeks to get developed in a shop in those days. I still remember being awed by all these white fluffy clouds and couldn’t get my eyes off the window for the entire flight. Years later, thinking back on the location of my actual seat, the flight attendants of that plane actually sat me for free, also not imaginable nowadays, in business class and were absolutely wonderful throughout the flight. I was amazed how polite and professional they were, and how caring.

I arrived in Frankfurt, my godmother and uncle picked me up at the airport, where again an airport attendant brought me from the plane to the children pick up area. It was awesome and such a great experience and my week in Frankfurt was spectacular; my first ever flight and my first ever time away from my parents.

If you haven’t fallen asleep on my post, you may wonder why has he posted this picture of the hijacked plane. Well that’s where it all started really with my passion for people.

My return flight from Frankfurt to Graz was in fact on the Boeing 737-200 named Landshut which was hijacked in 1977. Of course I had no idea when I boarded the plane and did not even think about it, as I was just so excited to see those white fluffy clouds again. Being sat again in the front of the plane, the flight crew was spectacular. I was allowed into the cockpit, something which is unimaginable these days, the crew served me plenty of these little Coca Cola cans which I had never seen before, and sat down and chatted to me and made me feel super comfortable. And then the business man behind my seat went into a conversation with the flight attendant about the name of the airplane, Landshut, the plane which got hijacked in 1977.

While typing this, I believe if you did that nowadays the person talking about that story would get arrested. The flight attendant and the passenger were talking about that incident and how awful it was and how complimentary he was to the crew of that flight because he was one of the passengers. As I have always been nosey, I listened and they involved me in the conversation telling me what the crew did, how they kept everyone calm and how wonderful rewarding this was once they were freed. I was fascinated especially about that “hero” feeling which was portrayed to the crew. I can still see myself sitting in that 1A seat listening to that conversation and other topics they touched on, of cities the flight attendant had visited and how many days they were staying in each city in beautiful hotels and the friendships they have in each city. But what fascinated me the most was that while doing their job, they were able to listen to stories of their passengers and tell their own stories.

From my photo album from 1989

So this is where my passion for service, people and in fact the travel industry woke. But why did I choose the hotel industry when I was so amazed by airlines? Well arriving back home, I couldn’t stop talking about my flights and my experiences. I took pen and paper and decided to write to Lufthansa. Probably my first ever compliment letter with 11 years of age, but with a clear message to Lufthansa. I wanted to become a flight attendant with Lufthansa when I finish school! So my eagerness made me want to know at 11 years of age what I had to do and of course wanting to realise my dream I didn’t shy away to ask.

I actually looked for the response of Lufthansa at my parents house but couldn’t find it anymore but I do remember very clearly the very sweet response to an 11 year old they sent me. And they told me the requirements as well. You needed to be at least 1.70 m tall, and I was praying every day for the rest of my childhood to grow to 1.70 (side note I barely made it ;))and that at that time, you also needed a degree in hospitality management!

So here you go, I then knew how to achieve my dream to see those fluffy clouds every day, listen to stories of people and make friendships all over the world! This was my plan: Finish grammar school, do my hospitality degree and off I could go to fly! But it all came differently of course. And by the way, I am still flying Lufthansa a lot and every time I board one of their planes it takes me back to 1989.

So if you are still interested I will talk about my next “moves” in my next blog but don’t be surprised if it will talk about breaking the record of making Hot Dogs in a day! Stay tuned!

#people #tourism #dreams #airlines #passion #hospitality #Travel