Originally Posted by
Duck Pilot
Domestic services have always been operated no frills/budget at very premium prices, pay an extra k100 and you get business class with a sandwich! Still gotta cue up and be prepared not to get to your destination on time.
Terrible thing about this whole **** fight is a that all the good guys left have put a large chunk of their lives into the airline, with all their hard earned work being totally ignored by a small number of people at the helm.
I was one of the "originals" who joined from get-go in 1973 and it was a damn great airline back then! Of course we had a large expatriate component in all departments but inexorably over the next forty years the very common third world attitude of "get rid of the white fellas, we can do it better" slowly destroyed any degree of efficiency or competancy that we all worked so hard to generate!
We had TWO expats controlling the entire flight operations department back then but when I left 24 years later there were some 36 nationals doing this work and making a total cock up it!
Heartbreaking to see this once-great airline slowly slowly deteriorate in every aspect! I believe - not confirmed - that the entire check and training compliment was "localised" and all the "white guys" put back on the line!
There still hasn't been one loss of life in 43 years though a couple of domestic aircraft were trashed due Pilot error so the pilot group still seems to be holding up!
Some of the "local boys" who were once chucking suitcases around are now in management positions and I genuinely fear that one day soon an aircraft is going to be lost and no, not sour grapes, couple of guys I keep in touch with up there feel the same way! I'll be happy to be wrong!