Air France Safety report

[Me Myself]

And why would you keep us in the dark ? That's a shame.
Then I'll put my 2 pence in :

- As I mentioned above, AF merged with 2 airlines in the 90's. One was UTA ( privatly owned ) a small outfit dating from the days where the french empire was split. UTA in west Africa and the Pacific, AF the rest of the world.
- Domestic ? In the 60's no one would deem himself to such a low job and it was left out until some ex navy admiral convinced the governement that something had to be done. And they did a superb job. In those days Marseilles was some 10 hours from Paris by train, suddenly with the Caravelle and later Mercure and A300, it went to just 60 minutes. Added to that their splendid on time record due to the automatic landing ( a first then ) Air Inter changed the face of the country by its price structure making suddenly possible to move from side to the other...........well through Paris, good old centralized state. Still.
However, their quality of service back in the cabin which was more of a cattle truck class really, was total crap. No seating, 5 francs ( which would almots be 10 euros today ) for an orange juice. ( No Mr fruitcake O'Leary, you didn't invent a damn thing ). Being the only mean of transport to the provinces, they were holding the governement by the balls and they squeezed more than a few times to get what they wanted not realizing the TGV was poping its nose.
Not really realzing there was no competition,or abusing this situation ( whichever ) led them to develop this culture toward the governement " We demand, you guys deliver " That was then their idea of collective bargaining which they brought along with them.
Air Inter grounded ? The country was chocking..........and everybody knew it.
In a way, they were like the aussie pilots of the late 80's. Look what happened.
The 1980's came as a bit of shock but it's not until the 1990's that they realized they some heat under the toushy and denial wasn't on anymore. For the most disconnected from reality knocking, they even thought they were going to fly to the french West Indies and make a bundle of money !!! When in fact, according to market laws, they were heading toward oblivion.
French were absolutly fed up by their numerous and ongoing strikes and TGV started offering some real alternatives.
The french governement however keen to ditch them, wasn't going to let the airline ( they owned ) go down and be worth less than toilet paper.They decided to merge them with AF, which by the way, was the only sensible idea they had had in a very long time. Air Inter should never have existed in the first place had AF not been so stupid and arrogant.
Most of the pilots joining Air Inter were those who had not been able to make it into AF or UTA, sometimes because Air Inter was the only one recruiting, some other times ( or most if I had a death wish ) because they didn't cut the mustard. Let's be fair and say that when given the choice, an homeopathic proportion chose to go to Air Inter. When not given the choice in times of harships, everybody, including me, wanted to join Air Inter.
A handfull chose to leave Air Inter when Air France started recruiting again in the 90's and started at the bottom of the seniority list, choice they were going to regret when the merger took place.
At any rate, this created a real culture of resentment toward AF that only grew with the years. A kind of Robin Hood culture.
Due to their short route structure and their collective agreement, Air Inter pilots were making a lot more money than Air France. You had A300 captains making more money than AF Jumbo captains who spent 20 days away from home then and were the laughing stock of Air Inter pilots calling AF L/H bunk pilots .............etc as opposed to them who saw themselves as the real deal. Not really full blown love and without the buffer and look alike civilized manners the anglo saxon culture offers.

These were the circumstances under which the merger occured and it did turn very bloody.
Not having given a hoot about long haul for years, Air Inter pilots suddenly demanded to be immediatly promoted so they could keep there salaries or at least keep the level of salaries they had before the merger.The AF S/H route structure with long routes like SVO or TLV, was indeed hammering them and the claim is they lost 20 % salary in the process.
Of all the indignities, they also had to be requalified with Air France SOP's, and this didn't go down too well.
In my view, Air France made a big mistake but as we all know, ironsight is very easy. We were in time of abundance and we could have paid them what they were earning ( roughly long haul salary ) before the merger. Today, they're all, or almost, on long haul anyway or have left. On the long term, the cost would have been very marginal and it would have eliminated the resentment they were feeling ( or maybe not ).
On the other hand, AF pilots were not about to let pass a 747 command having patiently waited 17 years to get there and it was ......errrr.......agreed that one Air Inter for ( not sure ) 4 Air France pilots would have access to long haul for a period of 8 years. After a few years, this system was creating such a huge resentment among Air Inter pilots that it was ditched all together and for once, AF management didn't consult AF ALPA, or if they did, they didn't give a damn about their disagreement and we went to a one to one basis which in turn, left a few AF pilots stranded on short haul for ever . These however, even screaming murder, went on faithfully ploughing not even stopping working for one second. Very different culture regarded by Air Inter, who regard themselves as the real testoterone pumped up blokes, as pussy's culture.
This brought a slight measure of peace, although some well known pains you know where, remained unamended pains you know where.
Just a slight side step here : There were 2 sets of attitudes. Those who said " Well, that's life, let's make the best out of it " and we never had a problem with them ( the majority ) and they are now happy long haul skippers and the others who decided they were to go down with the ship or even make the ship go down. Some left cashing loss of licence insurance money depleting the cash register in the process and those staying saw their premiums go up or their coverage go down. Thanks a bunch folks. Some younger stayed and started being pain in the toush and are now unhappy long haul skippers. They also are the noisest. I know, 15 000 Eur a month cruising the planet in a shiny 777, that really sucks. Who would want that, I'm asking you ?
It was refelected in all sorts of attitudes, from refusing to wear the AF uniform to clearly not giving a hoot in a thousand of ways.
In any airline, this kind of attitude would have been met by " Thank you but no thank you and let's call it a day ". Not the case here as everything got nasty and political.
On top of that AF was starting to look as a solid airline even attracting the interest of KLM. Social peace was indispensible and at ( almost ) any price. Flight managers could do all they wanted...............exept reprimand a stray away pilot, if they did..........they got hammered or locked in some dark closet having no respect from the top and absolutly SQUAT from the ranks. Among other habits, they also imported their very volatile union culture leading to the over bidding we are witnessing today.
Bear in mind all this happened in the span of almost 15 years during which, AF growing the way it was, was offering tremendous career opportunities to most.
Only a year ago, everybody was talking about all the new aircrafts ordered, people being picky about the type of course offered. Short haul command ??? Nay, I want to enjoy the tropics and my pinacolada's a bit more ; I've got time.
Today, the music has stopped and everyone has a huge hangover, more so after 447. The temptation to look for scape goats is huge and right now, seeing threads like this one, full in your face, with an almost centenial name tarnished.............well, yes, hurts.
But let's not stop at the booboo clinic and let's move on.
The devil hides in the best of intentions but my opinion is that in the hope to create this huge airline, social peace got paramount, even at almost any price and some basics got forgotten on the way. There was a huge elephant in the room no one wanted to see having such a grand time.
I'm not going to point the finger at anyone because, like many, I did gain from it, a lot and no one forced me to attend the party. However, clearly, things need to change and that's everywhere from top down.
AF 447 has adressed world wide, what airline training has become. We have in 12 months witnessed the best ( Sully ) and the most tragic ( 447 ) and these are the 2 sides of the same coin.
No flying an airliner isn't an easy thing to do and I say this to the beancounters, the journos as well as to some of our cocky young pilots full of cum who think they can cruise across the ocean watching DVD's thinking they're hot shots while granpa is resting in the bunk. You don't pay attention................you hurt.
No, you are not by birth right promised a short haul command in 7 years and a long haul in 10 and no granpa won't walk so you can have your whim satisfied. By the look of it, patience is going to become a very trendy vertue...................if you're lucky enough to keep your job.
No, aircrafts have not become so easy to fly that a monkey could fly them, in fact as we painfully know, the gap between normal and tricky has become wider.
We have to go from boredom to shear panic mode in seconds. That you must learn..............unless you're married to a neurotic which makes you an expert.
Finally, this job carries huge responsabilities and those who think they can do it in a cheap, slack, fast food manner need to be cut lose without the slightest hesitation.