It is bitterly disappointing to see a company with such an illustrious pedigree as Premiair ( over the years McAlpine Helicopters, OSS, Air Hanson, Signature, Lynton Aviation and Eurpean Helicopters have all donated their best ) laid low by the ill judged meddlings of so called commercial experts. If you care to study the management structures of those renowned forebears you will detect a strong representation of aviators, albeit old and wrinkly in some cases,at board level who knew the particular foibles of an aviation company and who were able to curb the business school dogma driven excesses of the commercial whizz kids.
In my view Premiair`s problems began under a previous MD who, when faced with spiralling engineering costs decided the best way to economise was to axe a large proportion of the licensed engineers, the very seed corn of the company.In their place he recruited more administrative staff and expanded Human Resources, like it says in the manual. On realising the folly of his move, some of the engineers were brought back as contractors but on higher pay and without the goodwill or company loyalty. Sadly, the die was cast even then.
What is the answer? EASY - turn the clock back to the 80`s when Hanson were at Brooklands, McAlpine were at Hayes, Manns were at Fairoaks and everone knew Lynton were the best.