Man managers:
Many airlines, especially in UK, have chief pilots/Ops Directors who have significant budgets to manage and significant numbers of highly qualified educated expensive people to manage. Most of them have risen up through the ranks of pilots, some in the companies they hold the helm of.
I've worked in various industries, and outside aviation they have focused on services to the public, be it insurance or catering. In all of them, when someone reached a certain level of management they were sent on extensive training courses to learn how to do it properly. They attended regular seminars to keep up with the company ethos, and workshops where ideas were exchanged and managemnt skills developed and allowed to mature; always looking to have the best people in place doing a good job. Like in the military it was a pleasure to work for a good boss. Productivity and success went hand in hand with a happy work force.
In most airlines I've worked for the boys at the top were often like politicians; they liked to be in charge and wormed they way up there. Not too many other candidates were interested, so rather than the cream floating to the top it was usually the plankton. This then became incestuous and promotions were given to those of equal mindiness or of the no-threat lower quality variety. Once in it is always damned nigh impossible to get rid of them. I did hear of one non-UK airline where the pilots demanded and won the Chief Pilot's removal. That had a far more satisfying effect than any 5% pay rise ever could.
Perhaps todays pilots are aiming too often at the wrong targets to right their perceived wrongs. From reading the gripres about many of the LoCo's a change at the top would bring more smiles than +10% gross.
Just when, and how often, have the latest family of Chief Pilots and D.O's been on extensive man management and budgetry courses? They can't fly an a/c without an LPC, so how can they hold the posts they do without full appropriate qualifications?
This is not aimed at Monarch but the industry as a whole.
Last edited by RAT 5; 29th Apr 2006 at 21:35.