In some repspects I feel a little sorry for TJ.
This is a man, as far as I can see, who has a certain amount of vision and pro-active ideas. Whether they will eventually turn the company into Ryanair 2 will yet to be seen. For our, as well as his sake, I hope that will not be the case!
However, I can't help feel that the complete and utter mess we find ourselves in at the moment boils down to one man and one man alone. You simply CAN NOT expand an airline by 1/3rd in such a short space of time by the amount of aircrew and aircraft and not expand the infrastructure down at the head shed at all. It is not rocket-science - It simply DOES NOT WORK.
Not only is investment needed in crew and aircraft, BUT ALSO things that make the airline work as it should. By that I mean, efficient rostering software with sufficient crewing staff to oversee it. It has long been said, and long been ignored, that employing ONE person to oversee taxi allocation and putting people in the right place, would save the company not only this persons' salary, but a small fortune besides. The excuse that it is not required is the worst case of burying your head in the sand that I can think of. Sometimes it takes a bigger man to stand up and say that someone elses ideas are better than theirs and actaully do something about it. Time to swallow some pride. Time for TJ to take a grip on his management staff.
The absence of anyone heading the airline's training department is an absolute disgrace and is something that has gone on far too long and has only been sustainable due to the fine work of the one and only person who administers the training department and it's trainers. If she was ever to leave, we would be up the creek without a paddle faster than you could so, "zero cost option".
Personally, I feel TJ has been woefully let down by his Ops director who has completely mis-read the feeling of not just the pilot community, but the vast majority of the airlines' staff.
...I guess this is what happens when you have management promoted from backgrounds with no management experience.
Believe me - it shows!
The sooner we start seeing some leadership which is prepared to invest in all of our futures, the better. If not, I truly worry for all of our futures.
