Wonderful stuff Leo - alas not quite right but why let the truth stand in the way of a good story. The winter losses at easyJet, in common with nearly every other airline, will be with us for ever and a day - that is the nature of European airline operation. As you yourself know, there is only one figure that counts - the overall year following the summer season. The current prediction is that we will make a profit - something few airlines in Europe will achieve this year.
Regarding Stan Woolley, I realise that he is a man of unusual sensitivity on these issues and is prone to periods of deep personal distress when discussions of this kind appear. And yet his case is one of note and relevant to the current debate. He no doubt prefers the Ryanair of today compared with the easyJet of yesterday - so would I for what it is worth. The problem is that he is trapped comparing apples with oranges and cannot be easily rescued from his self-imposed time warp. The easyJet he left was prior to the big pro-BALPA surge. We are now in a very different position. All very sad as the situation at easyJet was in Stan's day, that is more for the memoirs rather than having any bearing on the reality of today. Stan would understandably be unhappy to admit it was a bad move going to Ryanair and quite understandably will reflect on the easyJet he left as justification for being where he is. The problem is that the easyJet he left is not the one I am in now. If he his happy where he is then I am delighted for him. His view of blue and yellow Utopia is, alas, not shared by his colleagues. They have a chance to change that by joining BALPA and I trust they will do so.
The arrival of Warwick Brady, as you rightly observe, is not a bright moment for any pilot at easyJet. Given that even the Irish courts branded him an unrelialbe individual, and that subsequent to his departure from Ryanair he has been a conspicuous failure at Air Deccan and some Indonesian outfit whose name I cannot recall, his arrival is hardly a matter for rejoicing. He may even be here for the sole purpose of taking on the pilots. The difference is that, should the need arise, we can and will take him on. I am all for discussing efficiencies - I am not for being unable to get so much as a cup of tea on a 10-hour day.
As others have pointed out, the glory days at Ryanair are now over. The buy-to-sell rotation policy of aircraft around the industry is now defunct as no one is buying (we are in the same situation by the way). For what it is worth, Ryanair have done so much right. They bought the right aircraft at the right price with the right fittings. They went to the right airports and got the right deals. The problem now is that flying from one airport in the middle of nowhere to another airport in the middle of nowhere, calling both airports somewhere else and then saying how great it is you run on time is basically a specialist activity that can only expand so far. Sooner or later you have to use the Gatwicks and Barcelonas instead of the regional satellites if you want to continue expanding - after all not everyone really wants to travel to London Birmingham or whatever the latest illusion is. I personally think we should admire many aspects of Ryanair's operation (that view is shared by our management incidentally who use the Ryanair benchmark of employee relations as something to drool over).
And herein lies the advantage of BALPA. We have crew efficiency issues - our managers put it down to paying people too much money. BALPA however can highlight the astonishing inefficiencies that beset us of countless people night-stopping every night, and yet are wisely not offering up our salaries to hide managerial ineptitude. Ryanair have really got this cracked and I salute them for it. Interestingly enough, as Stan will know, we have many ex-Ryanair pilots now at easyJet (5 years ago it was one way traffic to Ryanair - now it is one-way traffic inbound to us). I was teaching in the sim the other night with another ex-Ryanair FO and had a long discussion with him about the relative merits of the two companies. He pointed out many positive aspects of the Ryanair operation, none of which I could disagree with. He also said that the life of an easyJet pilot is significantly better - that is a view I have heard again and again in the last 3 years. Where we have to sharpen up is at a managerial level and ensure we eliminate the inefficiencies of hotac that Ryanair sorted years ago. I have no problem with that, nor do I have a problem with flying 900 hours a year - it is just that the people who run the system are not currently able to get those 900 hours a year out of us. Given that scenario, BALPA quite rightly are resistant to change when there is so much else to be sorted. What BALPA provides is a check and balance - their presence stops the blame for incompetence being laid at the door or 'unreasonable' pilots who will not acquiesce to ludicrous plans that hide the real inefficencies.
I personally believe that both Ryanair and easyJet have a bright future. Nonetheless, I stand resolutely to the view that responsible union representation where pilots and management work together rather than by dictat is the way forward. We all know that both our companies are facing massive challenges, but they way forward for Ryanair pilots is to ensure their company learns to value their employees rather than treat them like the workhouse population of old.