Ear2ground, you said in response to the Guvnor
"As 'hands-on groundstaff' I find your 'part of a team' comments laudable and agree to most of your points, however I realise that the only groups that can really cause major problems are both Flight, Cabin Crew and to a lesser extent the Engineers."
Firstly, can I say that the pilots deserve to earn a hell of a lot. I know what sort of training they go through (friends are pilots) and if I'm on a flight I want to make sure the best person possible is at the pointy end in the event of any problems.
Having said that, many people can cause major problems, not least the IT staff. BA had a lot of trouble in March/April and I believe a lot of highly skilled people got the system back running. Without pilots for a while, there are no flights. Without an IT system for the same period, there are not only no flights but no forward bookings, or almost anything else which generates revenue for an airline.