Ken
really !? "five star" does NOT mean it's great, good - it means it has been categorized by skytrex as being such
The world's 5 Star Airlines | SKYTRAX
I grant you that it is like any other award. Once you meet the minimum standard you have to pay enough to get the award and it is semi meaningless.
However, you really think that CX has/ is a bad product ? Have you recently flown on a NAM or EUR airline - try KLM, LH, AA and tell me what you think. CX is not the best but it is certainly up there. It is not about being the best, it is about being a little better than most and CX does that.
Nobody can compete with the ME carriers, which are state owned, state run and not accountable to anybody but the guy dressed in nighty with a falcon on his arm.
- Profit desirable but not essential. The bedroom thing on EY may just turn out to be a vanity and marketing project
- Cheap state loans (aircraft financing, etc.)
- No Labor laws to speak of (HK ist not great either but at least they pretend well and the ME is in a different league)
- Cheap labor and no supply shortage - not only pilots and FA ....
- Cheap fuel - anybody really thinks that they pay the same for gas as let's say UA ?
- The Chairman and the regulator is the same person - The CAD is not the poster child either but again the ME are in a different league of conflicts of interest (e.g. bunk time does not count towards your monthly or annual FTL limits, etc.)
- State support from infrastructure to political backing
.... great product ... cheap price ... who can compete ?!
I cannot believe that some here miss the obvious.
Best airline on the planet (from an award/ PAX perspective) does not mean best pilot job on the planet. The two have little to do with each other. Ask the EK, QR guys how they are enjoying the experience, or ALL the SQ expat guys who were terminated at little notice a few years ago. Same bs, different place. It is not necessarily this lot that is less than ideal it is the entire industry and the way our system works.
For all I care I go and work a LCC for as long as they give me a good lifestyle, a good package, a good and stable career, they don't interfere too much with me trying to do my job as best as I can, back me up when I need it and make the guy setting next to me competent and pleasant.
What do I care if the person who serves the man sitting in 1A has had a 1 day crash course at the Savoy and now the marketing-idiots call him "sky buttler" or some other meaningless drivel, if they only use the most refined Egyptian cotton as napkins, or if they get picked up at home by the space shuttle. It has ZERO impact on the quality of my career so why get people so worked up about it ? I would grant you that a bad product at a high price won't sell but CX is a reasonable product (but getting worse) at a reasonable price.
Blowing +US$ 1.000.000.000 in one year on a very unique fuel hedging strategy does not help anybody, apart from the guy who sold it to them, who I presume is now sitting on some nice little island enjoying himself. But the money has to be clawed back from somewhere OR SOMEBODY. If every earplug saves us 5 US cents and we save 1000 every day, we'll have the money back in no time........ 54.800 years. In the meantime they will try to find a quicker way.....