what use complaining? sure enough at least the lower managers read this, but they don’t care a bit. the upper ones even less. for good reason:
look around and you realise the whole airline business is run on the edge with cynical risk management. it’s simply about profit loss versus hull loss. the driving force is profit, so everything related to cost is the enemy. pilots, as well qualified specialist, are one main enemy, because due to their qualification they expect beeing payed and treated accordingly. so the airlines aim to lower the standards as to get lesser qualified and less demanding pilots. the big jet manufacturers realise that and start advertising their new jets as supposedly monkey-proof. the airlines will happily buy these and consequently start paying peanuts. there are enough keen inexperienced drivers who will jump in and sing the song of how easy these products are to fly, so everybody is happy but the well qualified, kicked out professionals, who are treated as arrogant and overpayed relicts. every now and then, after a crash, some guru investigator comes out with findings pointing at quality, training, qualification, selection, adequate rostering and duty parameters. everybody nods and vows to improve and blah blah blah, then goes back doing nothing, as a hull loss with victims has been estimated acceptable every x-years by management, owners, insurance companies, the media and even the customers as long as they get cheaper fares. that’s the cynicism of our industy.
actually the employee does a similar thing, weighting income loss versus job loss. as long as there are low qualified/experienced pilots beeing offered and accepting lower t+c’s, we’re faced with job loss, thus accept income loss. proving managers that this path will eventually lead to accident and therefore less profit is a lenghty one. sure enough the erosion of qualification and quality will take it’s toll, but as long as the managers think that it will hit other companies first, or they will have long left by then and most importantly, as extensively proven, never have to account for it, they will not change one jota.
we will only be in the driver’s seat during the brief times of staff-shortage, when management has screwed up and has not yet recovered. that’s now! it has been said before: if we fly on our days off, fly into discretion too readily, give up vacation etc. etc., we give up a big advantage. the only time we will be given improvement on t+c’s, is when we are needed and cannot be forced. that’s now! We have to let the s*** hit the fan. it won’t hurt the company. airlines in this region are absolutely not proactive, so they need to be confronted with their failure. on the other hand their dictatorial way of managing enables them to react fast and effectively when it is really needed. thus let’s confront them with their screw-up’s instead of mending fences and giving them the argument “it worked up to now, so why hange?”. this will be to our benefit AND to theirs, because it will result in better overall quality and this has always led to greater success. just look at the car industry: the japanese offering much better quality finally sell more at a better price.
that's what we all want, don't we?
ttn