It’s holiday season, not just on our roads, but also in the skies. And if sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic is painful, sitting on a clogged toilet at 35,000 feet is a special kind of hell. Even if you’ve been spared the experience, you’ve almost certainly read horror stories about it, in media and social media. So, we have a suggestion for not just Tewolde Gebremariam, Air India’s new CEO, who this week made his first major public appearance, but all airline bosses. Speaking at Aviation India summit 2026, he underlined the airline’s big and long-term upgrade plans, to boost its international operations. But one thing that will lift the brand right away, is providing professional janitorial services for every long-haul flight.It might sound odd at first, but hear us out. Right now cabin crews are assigned the responsibility to inspect toilets. IATA guidance suggests they should do regular checks, typically every 20-30 minutes. But cabin crew are already taking care of meal services, mediating seat-recline disputes, occasionally managing misbehaving passengers, on top of all their safety duties. When airlines happily invest fortunes in lie-flat beds, mood lighting, and celebrity-chef menus, why leave the most basic human necessity to such a slapdash arrangement? Cabin crew, with many competing responsibilities, obviously cannot focus on maintaining the toilets well. And everything that they miss, translates into a very unpleasant flying experience for passengers, especially on a 6-16 hour flight. The only way to make sure this job is done properly, is to assign it to a specific person.It’s true that in India, cleaning toilets isn’t a socially neutral occupation, but comes with a lot of caste and class baggage. In many parts of the world, though, it’s just another job. In many modern Indian offices too, not to mention airports, it’s a job with plenty of applicants. Why would it be any different when airlines advertise the job, especially if it comes with good training and salary? A dedicated sanitation steward – we suggest this as a job title that’s both to-the-point and respectful – wouldn’t just keep things spotless. They would also gently educate passengers on what not to flush, before things go south in the loo.Last year, a Chicago-Delhi Air India flight was forced to turn around, after eight of its 12 toilets became “unserviceable”. Last month, a similar plumbing crisis forced a Madrid-Dallas American Airlines flight to divert to New York. And there are other such cases. What we are suggesting actually serves a global need. Sanitation management is not a priority for airlines, because it isn’t considered critical for airworthiness. But clean toilets are part of their most elemental duty of care, not some optional luxury. Do it before, as they say, sh*t hits the fan.
Disclaimer: Views expressed above are the author’s own.