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Old 11th Jan 2010, 13:41
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Xeque
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
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Have we, the pax, pushed it too far?

A pilot's life: exhausting hours for meagre wages | World news | The Guardian

This is something I have been thinking about for a while now.
In years past, airline travel was restricted to those who could afford the additional cost that allowed one to arrive at their destination quickly. Example - Orient Line passenger liner to Australia = 6 weeks. A flight on a B707 = 22 hours - but you paid massively more for the convenience.
Now everyone thinks that it's their God-given right to go anywhere in the world at any time and for a cost that is, compared to any other kind of transportation, derisory.
I've banged on about this before but I will say again - do you really have to go and see cousin Flo and the kids in Brisbane when you can see and speak with them for free on the Internet?
The whole airline industry is a mess whether it's the crap that crews and passengers have to endure at airport security, to pax crammed into 32 (or less) inches of seat pitch, to the chaos that ensues whenever the weather or some other external incident intervenes.
I think it's time to stop, re-organise and start treating air travel for what it really is - a luxury form of travel for which one must pay a price.
Then, the people who sit up the pointy end can go back to being regarded (and remunerated) in the same way as (say) the Captain of the world's largest cruise liner 'Oasis of the Seas' (or any other passenger liner Captain) and the world, generally, can slow down and take things a little more easily.

Last edited by Xeque; 11th Jan 2010 at 16:10.
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