ITguy,
Please read my note again, I wasn't saying Flight Crew shouldn't be paid more than Groundstaff, clearly they should. The point I was making was that in general, throughout the airline industry Flight Crew recieve better pay awards and benefits than groundstaff. A mate of mine flies and admits it himself and I have no axe to grind at all, I was just stating a widely held view.
As for IT staff/systems being able to cause chaos, I agree completely. The BA system crash last March proved that case easily. However, the question should be asked how can a major airline allow such a disaster to happen in the first place. I was overseas during the crash and the passengers and staff alike were aghast that BA could inflict such a public owngoal.