Honestly, if Easyjet and Ryanair stopped trying to be lucrative down to the very core of their business and actually assisted pilots in getting their foot on the ladder, that alone would make a huge difference. The chances of getting hired are low enough without having to pay your way into the seat, and if they need pilots they could at least hire them with their dignity still intact?
It's a business not social care.
Now, this *thing* with the EU.... The EU is starting to hurt for cash, so, what do you think will happen with circumstances like this...
The Irish Times - Sat, May 01, 2010 - Ryanair profits boosted by subsidies, say rivals
Extracts:
"Lufthansa says that if Ryanair was stripped of free or subsidised airport services in addition to cash, in the form of “marketing support”, it would lose money. “If all the airport subsidies and support paid to Ryanair were taken away, its economic situation would be very different,” says the Thomas Kropp, a spokesman for the German airline."
"French newspapers recently cited figures ranging between €35 million for France alone, and €660 million across the EU, as the value to Ryanair of the subsidies it receives. Until EU investigations into several alleged illegal subsidies are concluded, as well as a case being taken in the European Court by Air France/KLM, only one figure can be relied upon. That is the €35 million of Ryanair subsidies uncovered by audits conducted on several French airports controlled by local authorities. The audits, carried out by France’s cour des comptes (its version of our Comptroller and Auditor General), are representative, say Lufthansa and Air France/KLM, of what Ryanair enjoys at many of Europe’s 200 or so regional airports."
"In some cases, net subsidies amounted to as much as €32 per passenger carried, as with Rodez, a French airport where Ryanair benefited to the tune of at least €3.2 million between 2004 and 2006 for just three flights per route per week. At Brest, subsidies totalled €23 per passenger. At busier Beauvais (Ryanair’s Paris), the subsidy per passenger between 2001 and 2006 was a more modest €9, but total aid in cash and benefits still amounted to €28.6 million."
Now many of you may see Jet Blast as abunch of old fogeys and retired pilots talking rubbish about gumbo reciepes, but if you care to venture that way, there are threads running concerning these very issues as well as the political environment and like it or not, it
does affect the industry.
see ya back down there KAG
