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Air Berlin mulls in-flight dialect announcements after web sensation

Air Berlin is considering asking its flight attendants to make some announcements in regional German dialects after a YouTube video of one of its attendants speaking Swabian became a web sensation.

Air Berlin mulls in-flight dialect announcements after web sensation
Photo: DPA

Instead of standard High German, flight attendant Michaela Bahnmüller, decided several weeks ago to speak in dialect after her plane’s landed in Baden-Wurttemberg’s capital of Stuttgart, where Swabian is proudly spoken. The industrious southwestern state’s motto is even: “We can do everything – except speak High German.”

Bahnmüller told the daily Stuttgarter Zeitung that the decision to do so was “relatively spontaneous” because she wanted to show passengers a little bit of local culture. Since the video taken by a passenger went online and attracted more than 300,000 clicks, Bahnmüller has done the announcement a few more times, she told the newspaper.

“People are excited,” she said. “They laugh and say ‘that should be done much more often.”

Apparently, Air Berlin executives agree. They’ve asked passengers on the airline’s Facebook page if flight attendants should make more announcements in regional dialects.

But Bahnmüller said flight attendants need to be careful to balance safety and fun. She emphasized to the newspaper that dialects are only spoken after English and High German announcements are made to passengers so that everyone can fully understand.

The Local/mdm

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