Rikant Pittie

Rikant Pittie stood out for taking personal responsibility during the Gulf travel crisis and using EaseMyTrip's resources to help stranded travellers return home safely.

When flights were suspended and passengers were left without clear routes home, requests began coming in from travellers across the Gulf. What started with a few urgent calls quickly grew into hundreds of cases requiring immediate action.

Rikant worked closely with his teams, airlines and authorities to identify possible exit routes. Fujairah became one of the key departure points, while alternate options were developed through Oman. EaseMyTrip underwrote charter flights using its own balance sheet, secured seats as soon as inventory became available and arranged road transfers to border points and Fujairah Airport.

A Bahrain-to-Riyadh corridor was also created with complimentary bus transfers. Other possible routes through Saudi Arabia were explored, although visa and operational restrictions limited their use.

During the first few days, more than 5,000 passengers were supported through multiple charter flights. After airspace reopened, over 50,000 passengers booked their journeys through EaseMyTrip.

Rikant personally handled more than 500 calls and messages, many of them late at night, working through each case individually.

One passenger at a time.
One family at a time.

What distinguished his response was that it was not treated as a commercial opportunity. He put the company's capital, network and operational capabilities to use at a time when travellers needed urgent support.

His actions reflected a simple principle: there are moments when leadership requires a business to serve a purpose beyond business.