This would never happen here. Airlines in the USA use seniority
And finally here it is, the slobbering two headed behemoth who has single handedly brought the airline industry of the United States to its very knees, and yet you have the bare faced effrontery to say that yours is an example we here in Europe should emulate? I don't know whether to laugh out loud or reach for a sickbag.
We also have pretty strong unions who wouldn't allow anyone to fly as captains unless they were senior enough to hold the position.
We here in Europe prefer that inconvenient old-fashioned notion of experience and suitability. Seniority is a hackneyed, outdated hangover of the industrial revolution and should be done away with. It creates dead wood, stiffles mobility of labour, and at its worst excesses, so ably demonstrated at present in the land of the free and the home of the brave, brings a once proud and profitable industry to the verge of anhilatiion. Take a look at your own pityable examples, my American friend. Delta suffocating under a mountain of debt and continuing to lose money with wild abandon. Once proud UA trying desperately to off load their underfunded pension liabilities, unsuccessfully thank heavens because it would be the shot heard around the world and the trigger for, in my view, a global recession. Don't take my word for it, though, have a look
here and you can see for your self what the likes of your diabolical scope clauses and clinging like some demented octopus to your ludicrous seniority systems has resulted in. You must be so
very proud of yourselves.
Ryanair needs to be unionized.
Horse****, pilgrim. Ryanair needs to be unionised only if we aspire to the kind of union driven appocalypse currently being experienced across the pond. Our industry here in Europe is thriving, and creating jobs for hundreds in a free and flourishing market, rather than the sort of indescribable protectionist bunkum that goes on in the US and its resultant (feeble, it transpires) attempt at preserving the fur-lined conditions simply unable to be supported where businesses are profit driven. Remember profit Flyrr100? What a distant and ethereal memory that ole thayng must seem to you. The company I fly for is raking in profit, and I as a captain took home €10700 last month, or US$12,877.45 based on this evening's telegraphic transfer rate. Do you know any of your furloughed colleagues happy to fly a brand new, well maintained Boeing with stable roster and your own bed every night? I certainly do.
To those of us enjoying the European way, consider this. CFO's the world over were clutching their pearls when oil was above 50 bucks a barrel. They are apoplectic, I can assure you, with it above 60, and likely to remain there for a while. If the good people at Goldman Sacks are right, and oil does peak at US$126 a barrel before it stabilizes God knows where, what effect do you think that will have on us? One thing is sure above all else, unions are not the answer. Lets all leave the angels of airline death well alone, shall we. They've done more than enough damage already.