JB 007 my observation is based off the 12 years spending 70 hours a week meeting the CEO/CFOs and studying the institutions that lend money to the airlines to keep your aircraft in the air. Plus listening to my colleagues who spend all their days analysing the airline industry and are on first name terms with the CFO and CEO of all of Europes major airlines.
I come at it from the financial markets side and relay on here what you may not be able to see from sitting up the pointy end. I have no agenda or intention to tell you your job.... just a passion for aviation having come from a long line of pilots (grandfather RAF bomber command, father BA pilot all his life). I am just giving you it straight from the guys that provide the money to grease the wheels of the global economy. I don't care if you don't believe me, all I want to do let you know that the institutions that have been providing debt to the economy now want it repaid... and that is going to hurt.
This has absolutely nothing to do with your skill set in terms of being able to operate a 737/A320 safely.... unfortunately there are bigger issues afoot. Equally as a full ATPL sat at 30,000ft you can have no idea what we look at everyday when studying the financials of these companies in minute detail or indeed comprehend how what is going on in the city will effect your daily life.
All I am trying to do is flag that there is a big bus hurtling towards you at 100 miles an hour... some have now seen it and are bracing themselves.... others are still looking at the view out of the cockpit window..... but hey since I started the original "growing evidence the downturn is upon us" thread everything has been alright hasn't it??.... unless you worked for AL, Zoom, Futura etc etc .... so frankly sir you can shove your patronising "as only a PPL" up your ar*e.... we are not all fresh out of nappies... and the fountain of all knowledge does not necessarily reside in the fart box at the front of an aluminium tube at 30,000ft.