Since MoL's
PR representative, Racedo, appears to be active on this thread, and chose to throw a comment at me the other day for referring to MoL in the following terms, I'll bite.
He is a slimebag of note, and I despise the way he does business,
Racedo's question to me was :
Why call someone that when you don't know him ?
Saying I despise the way someone does business is not a personal attack. It's my view of his ethics, or in this case, lack of ethics. I also, but of course Racedo chose not quote this part, have often said that I admire MoL for running one of the world's most succesful and profitable airlines with (up to now) an enviable safety record.
I called him a slimebag of note. That is derogatory, but accurately describes someone who has the skill to deflect all the negative comments made about him and all the flack that heads his way and to sit in press conferences calm, composed, and unphased.. For that too, I admire him.
Why call somethat when I don't know him? First of all, Racedo, how do you I don't know him? Assumption on your part. OK, I don't, although I have met him at an industry conference or two, and as it happens if I met him socially, I would probably like him, he's probably a very witty and pleasant person with whom one could have an intelligent conversation and a laugh. But I still depsise him for his business practices.
I didn't know the late Pol Pot, or Adolf Hitler/Schickelgruber, or Frederick West, or Nicolae and Elena Ceaucescu, or turning to those still (regrettably) alive, Robert Mugabe, but I think it is fair to say, without fear of contradiction, that they are rather unpleasant mass murderers.
MoL has deliberately created his own image, and even if 80 million people a year choose to travel on his airline because it seems cheap or goes where no-one else does, it's largely a negative image.