Oh, where to start?
Flightrider:-
And before anyone harps on at me about BA's costbase, just look at the industrial agreements over and above CAP371 within which BA crews (both flight and cabin) work. That, coupled to the bid system, has to cost money which is part of the problem
CAP371 says no more than 900 hours per year. Paul Douglas (Very Senior BA Flight Ops manager) quoted in The Times this week as saying that even with no industrial agreements they couldn't get more than about 720 hours per year out of short haul LHR pilots. Thats what working at a busy airport means. Have you ever worked out of LHR? I clocked 650+ hours last year in a quietish regional airport doing short sectors, I'd easily make 720 given a bigger proportion of long sectors. And what do you say to the long haul guys who reach 900 hours after 10 months?
Fiftyfour - BA is undoubtedly mismanaged, but how succesful do you think GB would be without access to the BA brand? I've heard a thousand times that you pay a franchise fee for it, but BA mainline are operating with one hand tied behind their back because of the cost of Waterside. You get a damn good deal out of that franchise fee and I suspect it doesn't even come near to a proportionate cost of keeping the BA bureacracy running
HolyMoley - the naff destinations haven't escaped our attention. I'd remind you that Tehran, Baku and Almaty were all once BA destinations, and Almaty was a very popular trip.
Lou Scannon - if BA long haul folds then so does BA and the brand, which puts GB in big trouble as well (not to mention BMed, Maersk UK and BACE)
Mialo - Its the BA BALPA CC thats turning the screw on BA on the scope issue. If you want to be rid of Skyservice then ask yourself what the Airtours CC are doing to stop it.
Miss Inform-
The franchisees do not cherry-pick....
They look at what is being offered to them by BA, these being the routes that BA no longer consider viable. They then make a decision to take the route on, or not, based on it's commercial potential to the franchisee.
Sounds like a good definition of cherry picking to me.
You don't seriously believe that the function of a franchise is to pep-up an ailing route for BA & then hand it back to them, do you
No. The function of a franchise is to develop routes which cannot be viably served by the major airline using smaller aircraft. When or if the route can sustain a larger aircraft operated by the major the route returns to them. A franchise should not operate identical or even larger equipment to the major.
I dont need a comparison of pay scales, Norman Stanley Fletcher made it quite clear what he earns as a GB FO on another thread, which is more than most of my peers, both DEP and CEP.
Tinytim - against my better judgement I'll rise to your pathetic goading. If the market doesn't want our product any more (high fare, high quality, reliable, frequent service on comfortable aircraft), then where does that leave you (high fare, low quality, grossly unreliable (leading to) infrequent service on tiny uncomfortable cigar tubes)?