TT, don't be daft. If you'd care to read my last with your brain engaged the point I was trying to make was that because Mr Mikey has bought new jets he has downscaled the maintenance costs - what happens when he needs the resource that isnt there? you know, the spanner wielding ones
Of course a new jet TENDS to be a safer jet than some knackered old heap but when you fly the arse off it and only do the minimum maintenance required it stays safe for how long??
Flight Safety does not belong in the hands of the finance dept. Let me put it this way - I don't care whether the jet is new or old, I care that it is safe. I don't care whether the pilot is mil or civ - I care the pilot is correctly trained, briefed, authed and in good health with the right amount of sleep.
I care if the pilot hates his oppo (or her) or has a huge ego that makes CRM impossible, I care if the pilot will fess up rather than hide it and is man enough to ask for help.
I also judge who I trust my life to on some other factors - thats why Ryanair, sleezy and a few others (and there are big boys there too) including Virgin (until the pilots resolve their arguments with Dickie!)
And I won't be flying BA again either.
In summary - I'm not just out to get Mikey, I have concerns about a lot of things - now does anyone have a yacht for sale?
You really do have no idea of what goes on within the individual airlines, do you? I can promise you that the public perceptions of which are well run and which are gash from an operational and maintenance perspective are entirely wrong. Some companies have fantastic
PR departments and are poor at everything else, while some are very good at all the technical stuff but have poor
PR and patchy customer service. You have to be in the companies or have close friends who have moved around a lot to know which is which, so impenetrable are their facades.