Originally Posted by This Charming Man
I understand all is not well at MAPlc.The Dec/Jan pax figures were below expectations. The '' shareholders'' are asking questions and the answer was
''Liverpool,Leeds and Finningly are all begining to to have an impact''.
A further question was raised as to why the airport still hav'nt secured RYR/EZY after it was given TOP priority to see a far larger LOCO presence..... apparently there was no ''decent'' answer .........
Well those questions must have been asked because my spies tell me that the Reverend Spooner is no longer preaching to the unhappy souls in Olympic House. He's been told by the fat Archbishop to take his cassock elsewhere....
Obviously I don't know why he's gone, but I expect it's because the figures are down, as predicted by This Charming Man and explained by myself (the Board wanting the same growth twice over). Let me take a moment to reflect on the pluses and minuses of his tenure at MA:
Plus:
Reduced costs
Reduced charges
Increased traffic
Increased profit
Formalised a lot of adhoc agreements with the unions into policies
Appeared to care about his staff, genuinely
Recruited some good senior managers (shame they were all white middle-class men)
Attracted Baby and Jet2, with RYR growth and EZY arrival imminent
Minus:
Most of the costs he reduced were the wages of the lowest paid staff, both directly within MA and indirectly within the service partners
Seemed to expect his staff to work 25hr days like he does, forgetting they're still married to their partners, they still like to see their kids more often than just in McDonalds on a Saturday morning, and that though he may have a brain the size of a planet, they haven't nor would they want to
Wouldn't listen to advice from his staff, preferring just to make a decision and stick to it, even when wrong
Sadly, the airport could be further ahead in traffic and profit than it is now, if the Board hadn't wasted the 8 years prior to the Reverend (93-01) indulging the fat controller, who presided over waste, stagnation, competitor growth, indecision, and stop-startism, and failed to tackle any major issues properly. Instead he pushed for the rape of the countryside with the white elephant of R2, when the growth and profit could have come from better pricing to make the off-peaks more attractive and increase asset use at low marginal cost.
On reflection I'm not sad to see the Reverend go, but I wish him well. His heart was in the right place, he just didn't keep everyone else on board with him. Shame the fat one isn't going too though, but is letting Rev carry the can when he's implicit in the problem too.