There's no hidden meaning or subtle message in my post, it was meant to imply that some of the go/no go decisions made that day throughout the operational chain were the classic building blocks of an AAIB report.
The weather was pretty extreme, and no damage resulted
But we all
knew the weather was going to be extreme, so whereas everyone made sure they had their "A" game on board, and everyone who flew that day suddenly remembered why being a professional pilot is paid the money it is, in some cases, there was no need to get into that situation in the first place. Remembering that the final decision to go is always the Captain's.
But what company had an Ops Director that looked at that TAF and said, "there's a high probability that we will end up with aircraft diverted all over the place, crews performing some exciting landings, and a chance of some bent metal, looks like we had better cancel some flights", not many, I'll wager. Whether it's shareholder pressure, overall profitability, or just today's requirement in society for instant gratification, very few people seem to consider that an airline schedule is not sacrosanct and sometimes, it has to go.
On one of the few occasions when I operated in some very, very marginal weather (my decision) my expectation at getting praise for my superb piloting skills was very short-lived, when I was suitably chastened by the equivalent of the Ops guy for my poor decision making in the first place.
When Joe Public gets on board he is not expecting excitement or thrills, he's expecting to get there. That was not the case for a lot of people on Thursday.