"Beware of Greeks bearing gifts"

[driftwood]

If the past is a guide to the future, then Easyjet is just the beginning of a Greek invasion. Cast your mind back to the movement of pax by ship: the likes of Ari. Onassis and his chums had the industry sewn up, particularly in the Med. The near future could bring us:-. . Virginitis. . Monarchos. . Britanis. . Ryanis. . Roll off the tongue nicely don't they, but beware, like Olympic, Greek ships are captained by Greeks and staffed with Caribbeans. Watch it.

[wallywombat]

I work for that particular Greek gentleman you mentioned. What's your point? I have nothing but praise for the way he has steered easyJet to the position it is today, and pilots/cabin crews and passengers have benefited alike.

[Hold at Saffa]

Having travelled with ouzo-breath, I'd say caveat emptor is more appropriate!

Rapid expansion=rapid failure.

[Lou Scannon]

Driftwood: Why leave "Grecian 2000" off your list?

[fmgc]

Any fool can borrow lots of money in times of low interest rates, make the books look good and sell off shares at enourmous profit.

He is expanding way too quickly.

Mark my words a fall is coming.

I am amazed that more don't see it.

[nice_beaver]

Here we go again, another thread attempting to knock easyJet and its success to date. I'm suprised that it has survived so long in the rumours and news forum as it is quite clearly neither and should be moved to the "aimless ramblings by people with nothing better to do or have an axe to grind" forum.

How about some positive press for the guy who now employs almost 400 pilots.....

[Barcli]

I am with fmgc on this one.....

[Mad Max]

Yet another pointless thread trying to knock eJ and the other low cost airlines.

Driftwood, Barcli and fmgc all it appears with their own agenda. When will you guys get the message? The old ways of ripping off Joe Public with ridculously high priced fares is gone - FOREVER!!

They, (the great unwashed) won't stand for it when they have a choice - and now increasingly they do have a choice on all sorts of routes that they could only dream of until the LCAs came on the scene.

So whether it's jealousy, xenophobia, fear of your own airline going down the tubes or whatever - now's your chance to pitch in here with all that cheap and sleazy rubbish.

Hey Augustus! Come on down this one's for you matey - but get this, unless you can back up your paranoid xenophobia and barbed tacky jibes with facts and reasoned argument then you're on a loser.

Mind you, let's face it when you've lost all your passengers, what else have you got to lose - so you may as well cash in your self respect too eh?!

Cheers, Max <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

[Lou Scannon]

Stelios and his imitators are the way things are going to go for the next ten to fifteen years in our business. The public will get low fares and will learn to accept minimum service. This will spread to the charters and either BA will follow the lead or they will have to close down all their short-haul operation.

Pilot salaries will remain in the same charter bracket that they are at present as without decent salaries people won't bother to pay for the training. There is no requirement for senior cabin crew to earn five times the charter rate however as they can be easily replaced.

Those companies that survive will be around to offer upgraded service when the public's mood next changes. Unless BA cut back now they won't be around to see this.

Before someone jumps down my throat, I don't relish this "sea change" but I do acknowledge that it is happening.

[Flintstone]

driftwood

I think I'd rather see the companies renamed as you suggest than O'Virgin, O'Monarch, O'Britannia etc

[driftwood]

I'm not knocking Easyjet. I admire Stelios and aim to invest in his company. What I wished to imply was that wealthy Greek families do tend to follow the leader with their money. The shipping magnates were a very successful example/

[broadreach]

You make an interesting point Driftwood but I don't know if the parallel is all that apt. The Greek shipping industry was built on the back of cheap post-war tonnage that combined very nicely with expanding world trade, a nation of very switched-on traders who also had plenty of ship-operating experience and finally government regulating bodies that saw the shipowners' interests as parallel to their own, i.e. a way to earn foreign currency. Onassis, Niarchos, Livanos and a few others were the cream of that trading crop.

Do you know where many of them gravitated to? You guessed, it: London, because that's where the trading centres are. Ergo the shipping term "London Greeks". Many of the Norwegian shipowners also gravitated to London and you'll find more than a few American-owned shipping companies headquartered there.

It's a different world today what with EU and all that. What the Greeks - and a number of others - still have, though, is an extraordinary trading knack for sussing out the future - call it gut feeling if you will. That's not to say EasyJet have a better crystal ball than anyone else. But their timing and accomplishmente so far speak for themselves, don't they?

broadreach

[Gypsy]

As has been said - here we go again. The usual load of old tosh.

Fmcg and all other doubters - it doesn't always have to be the same.

Where is Augustus Nutwinkle then?

Incidently, how can keeping salaries in the charter bracket be a problem - eJ pilots get more than those at Virgin and BA EOG (so my friends at BA EOG tell me)?

Its so british to knock a success story isn't it!

[Few Cloudy]

Yes Gypsy, and British to knock foreigners too.