He also revealed that more than 80% of all faults are reported on or after homeward legs rather than after downroute sectors.
The clear inference being that aircraft -- with problems such as bald tyres, defective hydraulics, engine problems -- are being flown back to the UK in the full knowledge that they should be "no go".
Ian
I am not an airline pilot but as a former test pilot I am well aware of commercial pressures in many aspects of aviation.
I do not agree with the second para of the quote above. I don't see the first para as a clear inference (operative word clear) in the way you take it - merely that the crew have decided the issue is perfectly acceptable to carry back to base given their knowledge of it and its effects on the outbound leg, but they would not like to see it carried over to another day's operation. The known quality of the base engineers work is often another consideration compared to farming out a problem down route where a poorly executed repair can result in risks that are greater than the known one from the outbound leg.
Not quite a case of "If it ain't broke don't fix it" but more "If it ain't that bad let's not risk fiddling with it here".
JF