Originally Posted by
Ancient Mariner
What the sky gods are telling us is that Aviation is basically a f#cked up industri with little or no control of many links in the chain? Nice to know.
I sure hope they will be as overbearing, as they expect us lowly SFL to be, next time they buy a product and things go tits up.
Somehow I very much doubt it.
Per
Like many industries there are a heck of a lot of links in the chain...all the links have checks/controls, but there are so many links involved in getting a flight away on schedule no single individual can be privy to the happenings in absolutely every link in every chain, Despite opinion to the contrary it is not like turning on a PC and “taking off” in flight sim, or rocking up to your company car, turning the keys and driving away.
Unlike many (but not all) industries you are buying a unique “product”/entity
You don’t want the first box on the shelf, as in any old aircraft that is leaving the airport you are waiting at, you want a specific airframe going to a specific place...
As Chesty has rightly pointed out our job on the flight deck, and the job of many others behind the scenes, is to try and ensure you have a safe flight. Everything, including punctuality, is secondary to that.
I actually think a lot of the time we do things that once upon a time would have been considered amazing...many days it’s a third of the way around the world, not a drink spilt and arrive on time, but sadly some people have other expectations. I remember arriving in AKL one morning at the end of what had been a three sector flight from London ( for the passengers and for the airframe). One highly vocal passenger really let rip at the captain as he disembarked because we had arrived three minutes (3
minutes) late. Quite how the boss kept his cool I don’t know.