ITU,
Spot on. Leaving personalities behind, I don't know most of them anyway. EK used to be a small airline and we had a lot of managers that operated well in that environment. 20 years later as the airline has grown in size it is clear that the skills of some of the management haven't. In a small company, 'horse trading' and to a degree 'crisis managment' can work without unduely upsetting the apple cart.
As a company grows the small decisions have to be thought through to make certain that the full implications have been understood. When people start 'pleasing their mates' in this environment it results in all sorts of unwanted consequences. We all know in Business that a great many people are promoted to their level of incompetence. The reason they get stuck as middle managers is not because they are that great but because those further up the tree do not feel they would cope with any more responsibility. From what I have seen at EK we have some great employees. But, we also have significant deadwood that have been stifling the growth of the airline. There are some people that are largely uneducated and others that are plain corrupt, controlling our lives in all sorts of areas.
Cerberus