Mmmh - Interesting that each group blames the other!
The feeling amongst the suits is that they've taken all the headcount hits so far and although we now fly less pax than before we still have the same number of cabin crew and pilots so it's about time you guys felt some of the pain too.
Looks as though the cuts will be more evenly spread across the board this time. I think the comparison some of you make about 'suits' to aircraft is erroneous. You compare BA with airlines such as Easyjet and Virgin who outsource most of their support functions and so don't have IT, Engineering etc of their own.
The vast majority of 'suits' I know work bloody hard for BA and have a genuine commitment to it being a success. There are a few rotten apples in every basket but many of the 'suits' are incredibly frustrated by a culture where bean counters rule and there's too much bureaocracy.
The suits include a great majority of hard working people who plan the fleet, sell the tickets, buy the planes, run the IT, email the customers and design the advertising. They have families and mortgages too and when they hear the word redundancy they fear for their families just the same as you guys do.
Fact is like every airline at the moment we are in a pickle. We've more chance of getting out of it if we pull together and understand what we can all contribute. I know without pilots there's be no airline, but the same can be said for the guys in Newcastle answering the phone and I think earlier this year we all realised how important the IT fellas are too when that went belly up.
Perhaps not a popular view but an attempt to achieve a balance of perspective here.
Desk-pilot