there are plenty of ways to make an airline efficient without letting O'Leary get his mucky paws on it. EI's problem is the staff are still deluded in some areas into believing they are a legacy operation. You can't play the low cost game with pax and play legacy in the office. Sooner or later it will be one or the other. All airlines that trade on the open markets face the same issues. If you give in a inch to management cutbacks they'll take the shirt off your back (and get a nice bonus with it). If you don't give in you run the risk of making the airline uncompetitive. Of course when times get good again, you never get back anything that was given up. Isn't it wonderful.