ATR................
I think we are talking the same language, totally agree with you about management but hey what can we do? the pilots union is fighting tooth and nail against these guys, the scary thing is there arrogance, they have no experience of running an airline, but they act with impunity, cut routes with aircraft full to capacity and such.
I was trying to find some Statistics on the CFM series versus the older technology engines, have seen the stats posted at work but no luck on the net, instead I did find an interesting document at
http://www.boeing.com/news/techissues/pdf/statsum.pdf
The first/second generation aircraft accident rate curve is rising, now I suppose that could be third world operators or it could be that these aircraft are just old and failing more often. My point is that thank god (or the SA tax payer) that the new technology is here in SA flying the public around. You can argue that if SAA was out the picture the other operators would prosper get new equipment run more efficient operations but just look at there track records when it comes to how they treat there crew, what makes anyone think that would change if SAA was out the way.
New Technology is great but its also good to have crew that are not fatigued, undertrained, underpaid.........just building hours so they can get into Emirates or Cathay.
George Tower..............got to agree, wish we had more pretty hosties, whats wrong with that? I bet thats why many passengers prefer to fly Nationwide, 1Time etc, if you ask me its good business sense