Cargo One
I am live. I think we are confusing a number of things here.
I said the age of the aircraft wasn't a problem to me (in terms of its liklihood to complete the flight safely). As someone else mentioned if it was I could have booked with easy and gone on one of their shiny new jets.
We shouldn't confuse this operational issue with the discussion about sub chartering aircraft. We haven't got the full facts and report will come in time which will clarify etc. There is not necessarily any connection between the aircraft age, the operator and the airline in this incident.
In terms of the sub chartering think about it like this. If you wanted to travel from London to Manchester and for whatever reason you determined that driving was the best way. You don't have a car so you visit a car hire website where they provide you with a range of prices to compare based around what you are looking to do and make some statements about being able to deliver quality at a good price. You've seen cars about with their stickers on that look pretty good so you book. When you arrive to collect the car they give you the keys to a T reg Allegro in the corner away from the shinier stuff and move on to the next customer. What do you do?
In terms of marketing someone else mentioned that all the "brand" is just a promise. I guess that's true, but people will unquestionably vote with their feet if a company does not at least reasonably consistently deliver an experience that is commensurate with the picture it paints with its brand. I'm not asking for anything from Monarch. I expressed my dissatisfaction with what they had delivered, and in future I will travel with a company that delivers something closer to what it promises when presenting its brand.
Things have changed. Some people, I suppose, would like to go back to a situation where only rich people flew about the place, but that's not an industry with many jobs in it as far as I can see.
Last edited by Groundbased; 22nd Sep 2012 at 06:44.