Basil:
This makes a few delayed and cancelled departures pale into insignificance.
. . and then there's the United B777 problem.
Not so. What BA/BAA T5, and United, and AA, and the FAA troubles at Southwest, and the Oasis bankruptcy, the Ryanair share price, the pilot shortage, and other such incidents are telling the world in my opinion, is that management everywhere has cut too deep and is selling their product too cheap.
I am merely a private pilot, but I have no illusions about the workload, decision making skills and responsibility required by heavy jet pilots, and the constant management mantra about labour costs is pure bolleaux.
Raise prices. Add service. Stop transporting Chavs to places they don't have the brains to appreciate at prices that are less than the
FULL COST of whats' being provided without cross subsidies. To do otherwise, relying on marginal costing, has always been a recipe for disaster in any and every industry it's been tried.
The Ryanair model of giving the flight away and charging for food and water etc. is not sustainable, and never has been.