Now, now. I totally agree with Amazon Man. Of course we wish BA could make a profit, of course we wish we could be paid 95k before allowances, (not to mention the actual size of the allowances scale!!!!!) No, I'm not jealous, I was quite happy with my lot being a reasonably paid member of the UK's most profitable airline, (in return on turnover terms). Now, whilst I totally acknowledge the ineptitude, the incompetence, the sheer lack of understanding of basic cost control that afflicts our new BA bosses - you BA pilot guys have to acknowledge also that your bloated Ts and Cs are part of the problem. Sure, I could use more money, but I get paid enough for a decent life. Now, to hear that I may have to sit next to a BA guy being paid a bloody sight more because BA can't use its own people - its irritating at the least.
As to the shorthaul routes out of MAN etc. Are you seriously suggesting that BA mainline can afford to run these thin routes with a cost base the same as the fat longhaul routes. Dear oh dear, there is no RIGHT to a job in this world boys. Coming from a Company which puts profitability first, it does at least mean that my job has been secure all the time I've been here. Now, because I'm apparently lucky enough to be part of a (pause while I guffaw) world class company, I'm on a pay freeze, no increments this year, no cost of living, and assimilating the huge losses of BAR into our bottom line.
I suggest you take an 'O' level in basic economics before you dare to start criticising a Company that can at least turn a profit. (And that's not to say I support our management. The profits could have been a great deal bigger and better if Brewitt, Moll, and the rest of them had displayed a little leadership and actually LED the pilot workforce instead of dictating how it would be. However, Brewitt and Moll's era is beginning to look like the bible according to sound management compared to De La Fosse and McLaren and the other fifty General Managers we have already accumulated.
DOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
And another thing. I don't want ot be part of your seniority list. I don't want your bloody scope clause (from what I can see it will prevent me ever getting onto a jet.) I don't want anything to do with your Company - and if you can't see that a high cost base causes eventual company failure, then you deserve everything coming to you. I'm not a management apologist. British Leyland were stuffed primarily by incompetent management, just like BA, however the refusal to see the effect of basic arithmetic by the likes of Red Robbo and his mates made things a lot worse than they needed to be.
Rant over.
[ 18 December 2001: Message edited by: Charizard ]