Euromanx- 2

[DajBuck]

Thanks and apologies

For those of you who don’t know me I was one of the operations team.

I just thought it would be good to start with a big thank you to all the people that I worked with, past and present. We made a great little family, especially the relationship between ops and the crew which was first rate. I would also like to thank all the other companies that supported us as you all did a fantastic job. We are sorry that our demise may affect some with those companies too. I would also like to thank our very loyal passengers, we are all very sorry that you have been affected by our demise as well. I would also like to openly apologise to Liam whom I talked into staying after he had another position to go to, and to Jason who I talked into leaving Flight Support. I did not know this was going to happen but we did make a good team along with ‘fun time’ Phil and Kinder.

With regards to our last working weeks, all of the people, including the managers, were not fully aware of what was happening. It was never that sort of a company. There was an autocrat at the top and all major decisions were made at board level. The first I new that something was afoot was when some suits were seen looking into files and spending a lot of time upstairs in the boardroom. This lead me to believe that a company was doing due diligence on our business but I did not know who. The management asked the question and was told that because of confidentiality clauses JS was not in a position to tell us who. We later found out when Aurigny was subbed in to cover OEHBC, via Aurigny, that Flybe were allegedly picking up the tab. When the aircraft did not continue covering the flying and we were told to manage with two aircraft. I thought that the deal was going wrong but we were all told “business as usual” as talks were still ongoing. There was a feeling in the company that everything was not well but because everyone loved working there, there was no drop off in working performance. To everyone’s credit, all people remained very professional even though the last week was very difficult. Several others and I expressed our disgust at the way we were treating our passengers but as there was no spare cash available we were told that we had to operate with just two aircraft.

On the 8th of May I received a call at 1300 asking if I could come into work and go straight to the CEOs office. This I duly did and was asked what we would do if OEHBB was unavailable and could I look into seeing if there was sub charter capacity available. At 2000 on the same day I was again requested to come into work and was asked to look at planning OEHBB to depart for Exeter the following morning. I was told that there was a board meeting in progress, which I was lead to believe was discussing the companies options. I was also told that I would be informed what we will be doing with the flights the following morning. I was asked not to discuss with anyone as nothing was yet finalized. Everyone new that OEHBB was going to Exeter it was just a matter of when. I duly came in the following morning and rightly or wrongly flight planned the aircraft to Exeter. After it took off, I and everyone else received an email that the company had gone into liquidation, classy!!

With regards to crew, of recent there was a bias towards hiring Austrians, as it was believed that the flight crew ratio should be 50/50. The last two employed were and Englishman and an Austrian. I know the next two people to be employed were to be and English F/O and an Austrian. Having said that, the recent Austrians were excellent choices as they were very proffesional pilots and a credit to their country (FJ and VS). There were no preferences made to when it came to upgrades and the next one to be promoted would have been Andy Hubbard. There were preferences with regard to management pilots as we were told that Austro Control wanted German speaking pilots in the office.

At the end of all this several members went out and had a fond farewell drink together. I had a chat with Mr EuroManx himself, Mark Kermeen, about organizing one next year so if interested make sure that either Mark or I have your details.

Finally I will add my vote to changing from open skies and give companies route licenses. Prices must be agreed with government so that all routes will be viable but so that in the monopoly position too much is not charged. Now that Flybe have spent a lot of money advertising against EuroManx and have succeeded in driving us out of business, they will want a return on their investment, and rightly so, but the licensing of routes would mean that the price structure will be a fair one. This policy will also protect Flybe and other airlines operating from the Island jobs, which is something that will benefit all. Competition is good for the passenger during the competing phase but with 40,000 people with potential problems do you think they believe it is a good idea? On this note a thank you must go to Manx2 for offering places on their aircraft and also to Flybe. We all like living and working on the island and all should be done to protect those working in aviation. I do not wish for anyone to go through what all of us at EuroManx are going through now.

Good luck to all
David