Lets assume that NSF is right. I`m sure that will lower his blood pressure a notch or two for a start!
In his ideal world Aer Lingus would have approached Astraeus with a proposal. The latter would have said "No we cant do that its not nice! We would rather turn business away at this time of boom and expansion."
So AL goes elsewhere. Again the reply is no because the most important thing in business is doing whats right!
OK, So now what do AL do? Sure, the disastrous state they are in is, to a large extent, the result of mismanagement. It is also the result of a uniquely Irish political malaise that goes back many years. Cronyism has caused untold damage in ROI. The power of the unions (unchecked, and sometimes exploited, by politicians) has also played its part. The pilots union being one of them.
My understanding is that the AL pilots at BFS and LGW are on different contracts to `mainline` anyway. Did the union stop this? Did the senior pilots, confident that it would never affect them, step in and say "No you cant do that its not right!?" No they went on fighting to shore up their massive pensions and salaries (bigger than your BA nemesis Norm!).
So the struggle goes on. The new CEO who is not at all prone to the previous ploitical problems is unable to move forward to try and save the company. In the end it can no longer continue to trade. Guess what, the LGW AL operation ceases and lo and behold NSF is standing there going "Yeah! Great ! another victory for the Lo Cost operator! We won again!
How many pilots are now out of work? (not counting the ones who would have joined Astraeus!)
Of course, while all this was going on, those pilots who would have joined Astraeus because they needed to put a crust on the table, (apparently there are no `fat cat BA` retirees amongst them!) are standing by and applauding, because every one did the `right thing`. Yeah!
Fast forward to the next airline facing collapse (there will be one!). The management say "Thank heavens we had the chance to see what happened to AL. We wont make the same mistake of putting survival ahead of pilot Ts&Cs!" etc etc etc.
Hang on here comes an EasyAmbulance to pick up the pieces and profit from it!