Yes interesting comment indeed about our man. I can quite believe that as a bloke he is a good chap to have a beer with.
So that raises the question as to what it is about the system which promotes a decent enough bloke into an office that turns him into the man we have had described here.
There are a number of possible explanations:
The corruption of power.
He is just not up to the job but his superiors are equally incompetent and will not remove him.
The idiotic assumption by our industry that managers have to be taken from the pilot ranks. Why should a good pilot make a good manager?
The BA system appears riddled with the Old Boy network (read Barabara Cassani's book?). This throws up unsuitable guys who are considered "the right stuff" because their face fits.
These guys seem to have received no formal training whatsoever and have honed their skills by emulating their superiors who had the same vices. In CX we now have another disaster in waiting as the GMFO in waiting is another such example. A decent enough bloke but a pilot first and foremost, no formal management training or qualification and skills honed at the knee of a tyrant who makes the present office holders look like pussy cats.
Considering the budget for which these guys are responsible it is mind boggling that we have such ineptitude/inexperience at the controls...........