The way of the world now is to make profit.
The low cost airline industry model has been recognised as a good way to make money.
The CEOs and upper managers DO understand all about safety and morale:-
BUT THEY DON'T CARE.
It does not affect their balance sheet, so they don't need to pay it much attention. They only pretend to care about safety. It's like politicians pretending to believe in God. Believing in God gets the politicians votes. Pontificating about safety gets the CEOs passengers for their airline.
If conditions get so bad that pilots leave, the CEO will just hire more new pilots. (At a reduced salary of course. A benefit to the CEO is that with a high staff turnover, they can drive wages down).
Many companys nowadays are run like this. The CEOs know that all they need to do is slash operating costs by reducing training, maintenance and salaries, and increase hours, and hey presto ! They make more profit. But these profits are only for them and the owners, not us, (even if it were ethical to make profits in this way, which it isn't).
My company has recently slashed our salaries and pensions - by about 35% - and thanks to EASA, we are about to be legally allowed to work even longer hours in a flight duty period. And why? - so the company can offer even cheaper fares. And why are they doing that? - because it is a very easy way of making profits. You don't have to worry about quality or anything. So myself and my fellow pilots are now effectively subsidising the passengers' cheap fares though our reduced salaries. Some of my colleagues have had to sell their houses and move to cheaper areas. Why are we doing this?
Our new CEO seems to think that he can maintain our airlines' standards of passenger comfort and satisfaction NO MATTER WHO IS PROVIDING THE SERVICE. He thinks that he can staff the aircraft with anybody and the service will be as good as it used to be. All the dedicated staff who really cared and worked hard to provide that service and make the airline what it was have gone or are going.
The CEO will move onto another company in five years time or less, so he/she does NOT CARE about you or the state they will leave your once proud airline in, or if it fails after they have left. The CEO will be taking the profits with them. Profits YOU earned by having your pay reduced and by working more hours for them.
Last edited by Uplinker; 10th Mar 2015 at 12:35.