Any manager who needs the assistance of consultants is clearly out of their depth.
100%, but even MORE in something as specialised as airlines!
Joyce and his coterie of totally incompetent yes-men justify their enormous remuneration and bonus culture on being 'the best' at what they do. Ignoring the fact that (as you so eloquently put it) 'they couldn't run a bath', how the hell do they justify the need for consultants to tell them how to be 'the best' - why not just employ Bain to run the show and cut out another EXTREMELY expensive and destructive management layer??
I think it is safe to say that almost never in the field of business has so much work by so many over so many years been wasted by so few in such a short space of time!