BigGeordie I have my doubts if any effort is given these days as I have approached our management and been told very clearly that it is no longer a requirement to have a Native speaker on the aircraft which is operating to that native persons country.
These were flights that were planned weeks ahead so cabin crew were not pulled off the flight or did not turn up.
Makes you wonder how stuffed up the whole system is when native speakers are having trouble getting flights to their country and planes depart Dubai frequently with out any Cabin Crew who can converse with passengers in their native language.
For many of our passengers Arabic and English are not well understood.
I thought that was the whole reason of employing Cabin Crew from the country we fly to so they can communicate with passengers.