Originally Posted by
wondrousbitofrough
Not sure you have to bring innovation to the market to gain respect. What I had respect for when I worked there was the dedication to make things work whilst being professional at the same time. The fact that there was no 'them and us' between pilots, cabin crew and engineers meant that it was easy to work there.
WboR.
In total agreement with you and any other admirers of the airline. When I was in the business, Monarch were always regarded as a class act and many of us would have loved to fly for the airline, even disregarding their good T&Cs at the time.
Your comment about "making things work” is so true and didn’t just apply within the Company.
On one occasion, I had an emergency job necessitating a trip through Russian airspace and we didn’t have the charts in our library. I tried everybody, including God’s Lot. I was having no success until I popped on board a Monarch A300 and the skipper let me have his F/O’s copy. I dropped him a tenner to get his crew a drink.(Enough in those days !) and then charged my Company on my expenses !
Another case was the making up a lack of therapeutic oxygen bottles when we had a problem with a passenger on the way to TCI. We weren’t going anywhere until we could make up the regulation requirement. It could have meant a VERY large bill for overnighting our pax and crew until a substitute aircraft arrived.
However, Monarch was our Handling Agent and Engineering backup when we were working out of Luton and, after a while, I nipped on to an arriving Monarch Airbus at TCI and posed the problem to my counterpart.
"What’s the problem ? We have spares in the hold and enough to be legal for the return flight. Check it out with Engineering when you’re back at Luton."
So we were on our way with a minimum delay and fuss because of the calibre of crew that Monarch employed. Full marks.
No problem with Engineering at Luton either. Straight forward exchange of bottles for our next outbound and a signature. Monarch in my book were always an example of a good operator.
In comparison, I got a call from our own Engineering department a couple of weeks later asking why I hadn’t put the serial numbers of the Monarch bottles in the Tech.Log. !!
I had no trouble in explaining, in words of one syllable, why some airlines, and the way their crews are allowed to operate, are good and others are a pain in the arse.
That’s why it’s such a shame that such fine airlines are allowed to go to the wall. I hope all accountants are listening.
Some reputations are made on more than a bl**dy balance sheet.
