The public perception of the aviation industry nowadays is that the they expect to be able to travel around Europe or cross the Atlantic and are only prepared to pay peanuts, otherwise they feel they are bieng ripped off.
However, at the same time the public demands the highest safety standards, whether it be from the engineers or the pilots and everyone else involved in making the 'whole' journey happen, is quick to complain and yet those same people will happily jump into a taxi, frequently of the most dubious standards and pay £50 or so for a very short journey.
Wages are being driven down across the aviation industry, workers are being forced to live further and further away from the airports because of spiralling housing costs close to the airports, fatigue sets in with the longer hours compounded by the extra commuting coupled with the ever increasing working hours and we, the crews contiue to accept working weeks up to 55 hours or more whereas other professions seem to quiblle about a 35 hour week after which they demand overtime.
I agree that great strides have been made in opening avaition but the less people pay the more they demand and the more they complain. The aviation industry needs to re-educate the public about its expectations and reset the standards and expectations.