If anybody has ever bothered to get the ruler out on their UKL2 and measure the distance saved by budget airliners transiting New-Abd direct, instead of going through the airways structure, they will probably be astonished.
I have been operating in OTA E on numerous occasions when the FC chaps give us a heads up about stranger traffic. The conversation is normally something along the lines of:-
FC - "Traffic transiting south to north, x posn, x height"
FJ - "No probs - can we sort out some deconfliction"
FC - "We've tried but the airliner point blank refuses to change heading or height"
Typically, this will occur on a clear blue day, when the airliner insists on a RAS in class G airspace - essentially expecting everyone to avoid him by the limits which RAS provides. Essentially, the civvy airline captain appears to be relying on the good airmanship of the military pilot to avoid him!!
Airmanship dictates that this should be a two way process!!Airmanship also dictates that he should be proactive in avoiding a mege with a FJ, particularly when he has 300 people on board.
The relentess pursuit of cost saving measures by airlines has been reported in the major press several times. I can only sumise that the captains of these civvy ac have pressure put on them to fly in a manner which displays poor airmanship, in an attempt to save money.
Bottom line, if i make a poor airmanship decision, their is a chain of command in place to punish me for these mistakes.
On the other hand, if a civvy pilot makes a poor airmanship decision (and i suggest that flying through Class G airspace sticking 2 fingers up to all other airspace users, then having the audacity to file a TCAS report when they have a close aboard, is a prime example of poor airmanship) - he has noone to answer to, and who cares so long as he saves money!