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View Full Version : Are Ryanair and bmi run by the same people?


Vee2
9th Dec 2001, 17:00
Tootling through the forums one finds that a core of discontent emerges focused on only one or two carriers at the moment.

The bmi and bmir topics generate enormous amounts of comment, a great deal of it containing a degree of disaffection and disenchantment. The other outfit which genertaes a fair amount of heated debate is Ryanair.

Anyone care to speculate why this should be the case? On the one hand bmi/bmir are laying people off on the other Ryanair are hiring? Yet people whine and whinge about both. Are they all SUCH bad employers?

Son Of Piltdown
12th Dec 2001, 18:39
Not the same but, similar, people enjoy direct political control of both airlines. The problem being that these individuals have a chips on their shoulders about employing pilots. The reality being that pilots run the sharp end of the airline on operation on a 24 hour basis. These Guvnors mistakenly perceive pilots as a complaining expense on the balance sheet who need to be surpressed for the wellbeing of the airline.

Of course, mamy airlines get along fine with their pilots; Monarch being a good example. Poor industrial relations are a source of increased exceptional costs to any business not least airlines. Look at what is happening in Railtrack just now for a parallel example.

The sad thing is that, once an airline gets into a malaise of mutual bad feeling it is hard to correct. If the guy at the top genuinely does not like his staff you can't change that. What you can do is employ someone to run that part of the business for you. Things can improve that way.

Ultimately pilots will vote with their feet.

[ 12 December 2001: Message edited by: Son Of Piltdown ]

Vee2
12th Dec 2001, 21:38
SOP, I can wholly understand, and indeed quite wholeheartedley agree with you that the company culture comes from the top end and pondlife airframe drivers have little chance of influencing it, hoever, I cant quite grasp the what is driving the discontentent aired on R & N and other forums.

On the one hand bmi and bmir are laying people off ( 1 less it would appear at bmi ) and thus feelings are running fairly high both about the layoffs and how they were decided. On the other Ryan are hiring but only if you shell out for the interview etc but that, and talk about pay and conditions also seems to raise hackles.

So you have the case of both ends pulling against the middle; I'd just like a slightly better understanding of a situation which baffles me.

Son Of Piltdown
13th Dec 2001, 11:30
Vee2:-

You have two airlines with different industrial profiles and different bosses. I would guess the common factor driving the discontent is that the Head Honcho for each really doesn't like his pilots.

The discontent is a human reaction against being disliked by someone who has control over your life. You need that person for your bread and butter but don't like to accept they pull your strings. I liken it to a school culture. Good headmaster equals good school. Bad Head and you have social problems. The children still learn to read but enjoy resentment and years later air their feelings on Freinds Reunited.

Both these airlines show a rather Victorian attitude to staff and therefore get pulled apart. There is no easy (or perhaps there is!) answer to the strife. Money and productivity solutions rarely make a difference.