eyeinthesky - Thank you for an informative an courteous response.
However, I am afraid that after over 35 years of working for both government and private industry I have grown cynical watching teflon-coated greasy pole climbers and assiduous bean-counters working to trim a little bit here and a little bit there. It requires continuous and thankless effort to resist their salami-slicing tactics. While safety may not have been compromised yet in this case, I am afraid it will only be a matter of time.
You might think that this and safety are mutually exclusive, but you should know that the actual delay performance in last year's (safe) operation was not much more than half the penalty threshold level.
I believe that problems will always arise when dollar-based performance criteria are mixed with safety considerations. The current political mantra is that we need to corporatise and privatise (and don't blame me for those bastardised words!) services so that "market forces" keep them efficent - well I'd rather spend a few extra dollars/pounds on an air ticket than risk being killed by a system with a world-beating efficiency rating and safety margins shaved razor-thin.