From the horses mouth...
Standards meeting 22nd:
After Ed complimented everyone for their hard work/commitment which was directly responsible for the high standards at EK, he continued to tell us that the reason the pay rise was not implimented in Jan was that it was not in the 06/07 budget and would therefore effect everyones profit share adversely... so in effect the pilots would get the blame for a poor share throughout The Group... I kid you not.
His underwhelming speech fell on the stoney ground of a demoralised, could give a s**t audience which has heard it all before...except the budget bit, that was rich.
It got worse through the day as we were told that it was patently obvious that we are cronically short of trainers and pilots and that May/June should see the problem parking aircraft. Out sourcing of training (at much greater cost to the company) is actively being pursued to help deal with the situation with several agencies that were contacted unable to help due to high workloads themselves (BA, Althoen, Boeing). (I wonder if this was in the 06/07 budget).
Apparently the 'senior management' have been approached by our immediate managers in an attempt to communicate the problems but the impression I got was that 'NOTHING' is being done about it.
More resignations, lower standards of new recruits/DECs was also communicated...
EK is in crisis. The pilots know it, the training department know it, anyone around an EK aircraft knows it, but it still fails to penetrate the thick padded walls of those responsible for the situation in the first place...