3 Reds,
Are you sure of all that. I didn't work for XL so don't know all of the personalities involved, but I do work in a minor capacity for Viking.
Is the company really a rebranding of XL? I was told when I joined that Viking had been operating since 2003, yet XL went bust in 2008, so I don't see how that works unless time travel was involved.
The CEO of Viking is Swedish, I believe? did XL have a swedish CEO? As a similar question I believe that the chief pilot is Norwegian. I am surprised that XL, as a UK AOC operator, had foreign nationals in those positions, but I suppose it could have happened.
Some of the pilots I have met have come from XL, but others have come from Ryan Air, BMI baby, Globespan, SAS, Sterling, and others. The same can be said for cabin crew and ground staff.
At least one of their aircraft previously flew with BMI baby, and is now repainted in Viking colours - would that make it a rebranding of BMI? The others came from a variety of companies but the facts are that they belong to leasing companies, as do the aircraft of most airlines, the company that leased them previously is irrelevant.
It is a shame that with the current economic climate you seem so anti an airline which is at least providing some work for employees who have been made redundant by failures of other airlines in Europe. Unlike XL Viking seems to have a very cautious business plan of slow growth to meet demand which hopefully will survive.
As far as the incidents on here, all airlines have their problems - I was parked on a Greek airport on Sunday next to a Tui 737-800 which had been closed up and the crew gone to a hotel because slots had put them out of hours - so at least 180 disgruntled passsengers there who didn't get home that night. I don't know what causes all of the delays but If you operate to Greece in the summer it is difficult to avoid them. And there is no SOP to keep the cabin cold, the crew don't like being cold either but tend not to notice as they are rushing about serving passengers. If you are cold tell someone and the pilots will turn the temperature up, and after a while if you are still cold tell them again and they will turn it up a bit more.