Fair 'nuff, 411A. That may well have been the case when you were there, but in recent times Direct has been involved in a few problems that really shouldn't be necessary.
I know of a couple of aircrew that haven't been paid by them, yet AAI have certainly paid Direct.
Can't comment on ACE, but I haven't heard of any problems of late from them.
I'll agree that they could do with a bigger engeering workforce though, and the ground chaps do put in some very long hours indeed.
Part of that problem is the very nature of AAI's work, ie, contractural. It's very difficult to keep a constant number of staff, so they have to often rapidly expand & contract numbers, so pretty much everyone can and is faced with an uncertain period of work & leisure. Makes it hard for a lot of people to hang around, and understandably so.
It suits me as I'm not attached and have no real committments, but of course many other people require more stable employment.