Alex, I completely accept that extrapolating Dan and Air Europe onto todays situation is very flawed. Todays companies won't go bust for exactly the same reason and in exactly the same way.
What I was hoping to achieve is to get Wannabes to understand that the UK has seen recessions before and that in those recessions relatively big airlines did go bust. Much to the suprise of many of their pilots. For anyone much younger than me they wouldn't even be able to remember those times. For many wannabes the airline industry they have known has done nothing but expand and prosper at breakneck speed with a brief pause after Sept 11th.
That's why I like to harp on about Dan Air and Air Europe who were, I believe, two of the top four UK airlines by fleet size. Both bust within 12 month of one another.
Hundreds of pilots on the dole.
No jobs for wannabes for years and years.
That's the message and that's the history.
Its really a very scary industry from a job security point of view. Wannabes frequently don't understand this properly.
WWW