Manflex,
The two examples you give are both situations that in my opinion falls under the term "flying the aircraft" or more precisely "managing a flight".
I think you misunderstood me, so allow me to clarify. Airlines should in my humble opinion not be run by pilots or any other group of employees except for the ones that are selling and developing the product. Part of selling the product involves operating well maintained machines which departs and arrives on time. Numeorous groups involved here, far too many to list. Should pilots have a say when the airline is hiring a mechanic, a loader or an IT specialist ? Another, and perhaps the most important, aspect is the onboard service. Please let me know how the training we recive as pilots qualifies us to evaluate the abilities of cabin staff to make our passengers feel good and want to come back. Never been part of my syllabus but then again I don't fly the heavy iron. Part of a heavy jet conversion course maybe ? I think not.
However, it is obvious that the captain has a say on all matters pertaining to his specific flight. Be it unruly pax or performance enhancing techniques. But we should not participate in hiring cabin staff or engineers because of that.
Island Air,
Well to some it is know as Human Remains
but out in the real world someone did manage to hire both you and me, so they can't be that bad right ?