India News | From Village Girl to Airport Manager: Pampa Mahanta's Journey Involves Fighting Family, Society

Kolkata, Mar 8 (PTI) From a simple girl of a remote village in Assam to a manager of an airline in an International airport, considered a male-dominated profession, Pampa Mahanta's journey included fighting paucity of resources and rejection from family and society.

Now, she manages on behalf of her airline safety and security, flight operations, passenger handling, administration, et al.

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Born in a middle-class family in a village, she had to fight odds to realise her dreams.

“Nobody, except for my mother, wanted me to step out of our remote village and work. Basically, I got no support from my family,” said Mahanta, now the airport manager of Akasa Air at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata.

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She didn't even get financial support from her father as he held a different perception of women.

“My father wanted me to stay at home and become a homemaker later. I have no problem in sharing this truth,” Mahanta told PTI.

She had to battle several challenges such as limited resources and societal norms, which did not favour girls getting higher education. But she never gave up.

Her mother stood by her side and taught her valuable lessons about perseverance and grabbing every opportunity that would come her way.

Mahanta had to move around a lot during her school days since her father had a transferable job, and learned to adapt promptly.

As a result, she could work hard, juggling a part-time job at a call centre while attending college.

“There were times when I could not sleep properly because I had to attend college and go to work after the classes,” she said.

Mahanta studied in an institute in Assam's Guwahati and travelling there from her home in Kutalkusi village in Nalbari district was a nightmare. “I had to travel for hours to reach Guwahati,” she said.

Asked about why she wanted to pursue a career in the Aviation industry, Mahanta said, “I always found this industry to be very interesting and every day is a new day here.”

According to her, the job she does is very demanding as she is responsible for smooth operation of the flights of her airline from the Kolkata airport.

From passengers to colleagues she has to manage everything on a day-to-day basis. From offering the best services to passengers to addressing grievances from various quarters she is responsible for all.

“The job of an airport manager is very challenging,” said Captain Sarvesh Gupta, a former Chairman of the Airport Operators' Committee in Kolkata.

“Airport managers are local representatives of airlines. They ensure compliance of regulations such as safety, and security, besides managing overall flight operations, passenger handling, administrations, coordinate with local administration and are also the point of contact during contingencies,” Capt Gupta said.

In most cases, men have been appointed in that position, but more women have been at the helm in recent years, he said.

“A lot has changed in my family since I began working. The best thing is that my father is a changed man. His perception has changed and I am happy about it. I have four nieces and today all of them look up to me,” said Mahanta.

She joined the aviation industry as a trainee in 2011 in a private airline. Her posting was in Guwahati. From there she hopped from one airport to another – Kolkata, Maldives, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and once again she was back in Kolkata, and this time as the airline's airport manager.

Another female airport manager in Kolkata, Anushila Chaturvedi of Emirates told PTI that it has always been an equal-opportunity city.

“In Kolkata, people pray to goddess Durga and Kali and women are held in high esteem. Flight operations are a very dynamic issue and every day is a new challenge. All stakeholders at the airport have always cooperated with me and there has been no discrimination from anyone,” Chaturvedi said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)