Passengers traveling Etihad Airways will have a fleet of Mary Poppins at their disposal to calm irritable children — and irritated passengers.
The UAE-based carrier announced the launch of their new Flying Nanny service this week, an in-flight nursery that will be staffed by flight attendant nannies trained out of Norland in England, a childcare nursing college that churns out real-life Mary Poppins — minus, perhaps, the rum punch medicine.
Identifiable by their orange aprons, the nannies will be available on long-haul flights to entertain antsy, bored children with crafts like hand puppets, origami, art activities, face painting, and games.
They’ll also be on hand to help put overtired children to bed and provide advice and support on how to manage children during long flights for jetlagged parents.
Nanny flight attendants will be armed with goodie bags filled with games and stickers and will be available for unaccompanied minors and young children.
Lest you think, however, that you can pawn your child off to the flight attendant for the entire flight, the site adds a sly disclaimer saying, “… we can’t take them off your hands completely, as we must cater to the needs of every family onboard…”
The news posted September 1 on Facebook, meanwhile, received enthusiastic reception as it’s been liked more than 3,540 times and shared 670 times as of September 3.
The new service follows on the heels of budget Singaporean airline Scoot and Air Asia X in Malaysia recent launch of child-free cabins.
