I recently had the pleasure of flying on Villa Air to Maamigili on a work trip with one of their very own captains, First Officer Hawwako. As someone who is anxious to travel with new people, I arrived way before Hawwako fearing missing our flight. To my surprise, she greeted me from right across the check-in with a vanilla latte to get our work day started.
Our check-in, boarding, and everything in between went extremely smoothly since every single member of the ground crew recognized Hawwako and wanted to ensure that everything was in order. When it came time to board the plane, we both chose window seats to take in the scenery on this short flight. When we arrived in Maamigili, we went straight to the lounge to relax and converse over coffee while waiting for the break time so that we could execute our photoshoot without disturbing the ground crew.
As this was my first trip, I thought I would struggle with figuring out the procedures and times when we will be allowed on the run-way but luckily for me as First Officer Hawwako has been working at Villa Air since 2016, she graciously communicated with her colleagues and helped me get through all the security procedures so that we would be allowed near the craft. When we got the opportunity to go take the picture, the ground staff of Villa Air were all extremely nice to me as they helped me and Hawwako through every step of the photoshoot. While we had only a short span to get the perfect shot between the rain and sunshine, the ground staff also offered to give us additional time to get the perfect shot, but with the perfect coordination and help from all the groundstaff and First Officer Hawwako, we were done with the photo shoot before the boarding started.
Even though this was a work trip, working with Hawwako made it feel more like it was a short getaway with a friend. Between fun conversations and getting some serious work done, our trip to Maamigili went smoother than I could have ever anticipated. It was both an honour and my luck that I got to work with someone as friendly and inspirational as First Officer Hawakko to capture her story.
Don’t forget to read the full story on the inspirational First Officer Hawwako in the upcoming Villa Inflight Magazine ‘Fiya’!
