I trust we agree regulatory oversight ought not to be a "grey area"? There's a clear difference between hiring some local cabin crew as they speak a language and know the culture, and hiring one's flight deck crew and basing them out in Asia as it's a Hell of a lot cheaper. I would have no concern if they had long haul on the same AOC as say the Spanish bases, EU based. My concern is that in order to take this revolutionary idea to market, and kudos for doing so, you're pushing the boundaries of what I consider to be sensible.
Anyhoo enough from me, I am looking forward to seeing how this pans out. I would like to see it succeed, create jobs locally and lower fares. I am keen to see how far they push driving costs down far enough, because 787s are comparable to Thomson's on a cost basis but the fares will be way lower, the costs of airports at both ends are comparable. The only way to slash costs even more is to stiff it to the front line staff, in an environment where everyone has handling agents on the bare minima, it's cabin and flight deck crew whose ts & cs continue to head South. Still worth it to save a wee bit more money, and the public, God love us, will agree.
Last edited by Skipness One Echo; 20th Oct 2013 at 23:29.