Originally Posted by
FlightlessParrot
I knew it was a bad sign when airlines started addressing passengers as "Customers."
Wow.
then the managers will start trading off safety vs profits, and calculating how many accidents a decade they can tolerate before it impacts the bottom line
It's always the case that one could spend incremental money and achieve incremental safety. Third crewmember in the cockpit? Go from triple redundant hydraulics to quadruple redundant? Go from one minute spacing on arrivals to 2 minute spacing? pull out two more rows of seats and add an additional exit? There's always more that can be done. How else, other than hard-nosed quantitative analysis, would you propose that airline operators calculate whether or not to undertake any given safety improvement?
For my part, it means that I accept that I have a responsibility to cabin crew to listen to their announcements, follow their directions, and not ask for something when they're busy with essential tasks. This sort of sense of shared responsibility is not compatible with conceiving the relationship as one of supplier and customer.
I don't see why. There's nothing particularly unique about air transport in this regard.