flyboy 007's corporate apology is extremely generous. The passengers are not expected to know by whom or why they've been delayed - they just want to get from A to B as quickly and comfortably as the AT force can achieve.
And that means that the supporting elements, ASCOT Ops, RAF Movs etc ALL have a part to play. Whether that means polite attitudes to passengers at Akrotiri or whatever, EVERYONE has some responsibility.
My first exposure to 'Movers v Aircrew' was in 1970. I was at Thorney Island on a short visit between university terms and we'd flown from Thorney to Glasgow at low level, then on to Benbecula to pick up some Army guys who we flew down to Lyneham. We parked....then a Plt Off in No.1 uniform and red armband strutted out from the terminal. He imperiously demanded that the aircraft was kneeled to offload our passengers. This, according to the captain, was not normal. With Adolf still waving his arms about, the captain shut both engines down and told the little git to "F*ck off and get some Comet steps!"....
Claiming there weren't any, Adolf sent out a forklift and cage and made our Army passengers get out that way. The captain was apoplectic and submitted a 'route stage report' - a few days later we heard that Adolf had had a no-tea, no biscuits hat-on interview with a grown up!
Later, many years later, I brought some wives and kids back from Akrotiri to Brize one icy cold evening. Inbound we'd passed the usual message to Ops and had requested suitable transport for the passengers. But we were parked down by LSS - and the movers expected wives with kids plus feeding/wiping/pacifying kit to stagger across a cold and icy ASP to the terminal. A large bus turned up....for the crew. We then had a stand off - do I wait for enough wheels for the passengers, do I use the 'crew transport' for the passengers?? In the end I decided that the women and children would use the bus, blokes would walk. And the crew would wait until all the passengers had been looked after.
I was later accosted by the SAMO who asked what my problem had been. In words of half a syllable she was told precisely where her people had failed in their actions.
We always taught AT crews to consider ALL passengers as VIPs. Which is why I had nothing but contempt for so-called 'VIP crews' and their pompous attitudes. Whoever is stuffed into the back of one of the decaying museum pieces which masquerade as the RAF's 21st century air transport fleet should be treated as the most important component of the flight. By ALL involved.
Perhaps R&R should be considered as starting when the passengers reach their home addresses. So, if some piece of decaying scrap iron fails at Akrotiri and the passengers are delayed, it won't be affect their R&R entitlement. For assuredly R&R does not mean eating beans on toast in some scruffy mess annex at the convenience of some bunch of ar$es worried about their shift change times for 36 hours........