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Old 14th Jun 2009, 13:05
  #102 (permalink)  
Leo Hairy-Camel
 
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Post Come, gentle bombs.

Your post is sufficiently ambiguous
Only to those beyond the reach of reason, Eagerbeaver1.

D O Guerrero's concise and clear-headed argument demolishes in one expertly constructed post, the nonsense advanced by those outside Ryanair who feel sufficiently threatened by our ongoing success, to offer up the sort of ill-considered, feather-headed bunkum that goes on in every related thread herein.

There are a couple of truths that need to be remembered. First of all, the reality of working for Ryanair is often at variance with the external perception of it. The reason for this is, broadly speaking, a combination of projecting the cabin experience, admittedly less than pleasant on occasion, into the cockpit environment, and professional jealousy.

As to the former, that negative perception is entirely wrong when it comes to our pilots. Ryanair pilots are among the most talented on earth, for the best of reasons since our operation demands it. One actually needs to know how to fly in Ryanair. Short runways, a multitude of non-precision approaches and the vagaries of the European winter demand it. Anyone who criticises cadet first officers for selling their souls to the devil, misses the most important half of their stories. We only the take the best of them, because experience has taught us that only the best of them will survive the demands of the training department, something that ALL Ryanair cadet pilots should be extremely proud of.

As to the latter, nobody like change. The most shrill of those who object to us at Ryanair are those with a hankering for the good old, bad old days when flying was the purview of those born among the higher branches of Europe's social tree. Similarly, they hunger for the days when only the wealthy could afford to fly. Paying £700 for a return flight from Dublin to London did lend itself to a higher class of person occupying our high-speed metal tubes, didn't it, but is it right that the sort of quality of life enhancement and affirmation that comes from readily accessible flying should be denied the majority? We don't think so. Neither do the 70 million passengers who will fly with us this year. We've made a great deal of money proving that point and created opportunity and employment for thousands in doing so.

There is, of course, a rather more sinister force at work, when addressing the perplexing question of just why it is that Ryanair attracts such negative attention here. There exists deep within the collective psyche of the British, a deep and abiding resentment of any Irish success. The fact that Ryanair is, proudly and loudly, and IRISH airline, rankles deep within the English soul, and gives voice to the lungs of that most peculiarly English of phenomena, vultures masquerading as birds of paradise.

Speaking of vultures, BLAPA currently seek to wave their prettiest of feathers in our face. Moreover, they appeal to those (almost always British) pilots who lack the inherent self-confidence to manage their own lives without some external, vaguely consoling force, inserting a suppository of "dignity and respect"™© intra-rectally. Dignity and respect comes from how one conducts one's own self. If it doesn't exist in an individual in the first place, no amount of BLAPA seduction will ever succeed in delivering it.

Is Ryanair perfect? No, it isn't. Will BLAPA or the Irish Polyester Pygmy succeed in making it more perfect? Certainly not. Those, like I, who have been around long enough to know that unions seek to serve one principal master at the expense of all the others, will be able to entertain you all with fireside chats on the subject. You will find BLAPA are very adept at setting up standing orders and direct debit authorisations for your subscription fees of £1000 yearly, but grow strangely hard of hearing thereafter.

When deciding what to do with your hard-earned salaries, ladies and gentlemen of Ryanair, you may care to remember the hilarious spectacle, and dazzling fiesta of irony, reflected in the BLAPA staff members threatening to go on strike, lest their final salary pension schemes were guaranteed!
GMB organiser Dave Kent accused Balpa of a "disgraceful case of hypocrisy".
The workers won, of course, giving rise to a pickle for BLAPA. More poignantly, just how do you think BLAPA intend to pay for this bounteous jackpot? That's right; the dignity and respect™© of your subscription fees.
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