Having said that, I find it difficult to believe that UK airlines would fly in breach of airworthiness regulations.
I agree, to a point. The trouble is, most "regulations" these days are rather woolly and the low cost operators are continually challenging them! Many of the procedures we, as front-line staff, are led to believe are "Regulations" are in fact "Recommendations" which are not the same thing at all! Indeed the 5KG upper limit on cabin baggage after the Kegworth crash was always only a "Recommendation".
Maybe the plated weights on the lockers are "Recommendations" too or "Chinese Writing" (how London Underground speed limits were often described when I worked for them, before the Moorgate disaster! We had more than one Piccadilly Line train returned to Northfields depot with dents in the roof after ignoring the limit at Barons Court when entering the tunnel!).
Going Off Topic, or digressing, for a moment we at British Airways always used to make a big issue about accepting late passengers or baggage. The Dispatcher (now known as a TRM) used to say "I've got my Load Sheet, it's too late to adjust." This was especially true on a lightly loaded machine where some seats were blocked for trim and some passengers may have even had their seats changed to shift the weight fore or aft.
Now that our "Dispatchers" have become "TRM's" (or Turn Round Managers) the responsibility for the Load Sheet has devolved to a separate department away from the airfield.
Since EZY and RYR came on the scene, we block seats for trim only very occasionally and don't seem to move passengers for trim any more. EZY and RYR, with their policy of "free seating" seem to treat their aeroplanes as if they were busses, and their "Dispatchers" seem very young and inexperienced in comparison with our people.
This begs the question, "Is all the fuss about weight and balance, and the Dispatchers giving themselves mental anguish trying to get the Load Sheet to balance all an elaborate myth to create an aura of mystique around the job?
Or, more seriously, are certain criteria that we used to worry about now simply being ignored? (and I am NOT for one second saying they are, I am merely posing the question!)