Euromanx- 2

[Capt. Horrendous]

You can contact AFO by e-mail, [email protected]. As I understand it, f.o vacancies exist, but there is a queue for Captain positions amongst the existing workforce.

[Beta Range]

Dontdoit,

I am DISGUSTED at your general statement about the flight crew for EuroManx and how you advise them to disappear back to their homelands. Why are there just so many insensitive people on this planet!! I am taking your comment to heart as I am British through and through and have been more than proud to fly for the airline over the last 3 years. I don't know what your situation or circumstances are and I don't particularly want to either, but I suggest you look to your own front door as to why you are so peeved about whatever you are peeved about.

British, Austrian, Swiss, Australian, whatever, all people at the end of the day who have lost their jobs for whatever reason. Get a heart will you!!

BR

[boris]

Midrif,
Manx Airlines were a part of British Regional Airlines plc. This company was bought by British Airways. Bit difficult to hang on to a plc if someone wants it and is prepared to buy it.
The LHR slots by the way, just happened to be a small part of that deal and were worth only a fraction of what BA paid for.
The fact that BA parachuted crap management into the company is just another poor show along with many others.
Fact of the matter is that BRAL were looking to buy Brymon from BA at the time as it would have fitted well into BRAL´s company. BA apparantly thought that was too good a deal to miss and instead of selling Brymon, bought BRAL and did the merger themselves.
The aircraft were not "shot" as you so quaintly put it and were an integral part of their fleet.
Please get your ducks in a row.

[en2r]

'how could their accountants and auditors have let things get so bad without pulling the plug' - I've no idea but I doubt if any of them will have been 'signing-on' this morning.

An accountants job is to offer financial advice to the company, prepare their accounts and ensure they are tax compliance. They have absolutely no powers to wind up a company. I presume the accountants told JS that the company was not viable some time ago but it was up to him what he did with that information.

[manx crab]

So it turns out that the IOM Govt in effect subsidised EMX to the tune of over £1million, had known they were in trouble since last October (only that long) and yet the Minister/AD never thought it was strange/ potentially costly for them to allow the prime asset to leave very early and less than an hour before it was presumably due to take SLF to LCY. It makes the AD's statement on the Wed even more remarkable

Naive, incompetent or both?.

All this and they still failed to save lots of good peoples livelihoods.

Must be a big carpet somewhere to sweep all this under

[The Little Prince]

Well said Boris!
Manx Airlines were constantly criticised on price for the twelve years I was on the Island. I don't believe there were many social functions I attended where the fare structure was not berated, but the operation itself at least performed, and this was acknowledged - probably now more than ever!They (WE) were a professional and committed operation, which performed to a very high standard and by cross subsidising the routes, provided a real service to the Island. BA disrupted many many more lives than their erstwhile successor by their attempt at taking over, and it would be a brave man looking through distorted, (not rose tinted) specs who suggested many Manx residents would not rather have them back than use the various showers and pale imitations currently (sometimes) providing a ride in an aeroplane. I still believe that had the Manx Govt of the time not been so committed to Open Skies, and instead supported a high quality local product, then Regional Aviation across the UK and Europe would be much better than the Flybe product.
As for the aircraft being "shot" - ridiculous! The engineering support was second to none, the aeoplanes were the cleanest and best maintained I think I've ever flown, and although these Flybe Dash-8s are new, they are a horrid aeroplane to fly and to travel in. Nothing close to Sovereign Service!
Wish I could turn the clock back.

[Mike Mercury]

Well said TLP.
I wonder if the EMX boys will be having 25 year reunions.............

[Sanford]

Foreign pilots

BR, I agree with you wholeheartedly and nobody can blame those foreign pilots who came here simply looking for pilot jobs. I do feel that we have to understand that, now that Europe is more open, those pilots have just as much right to fly here as locally based pilots and all local pilots can go to work in other European countries where opportunities exist.

I can also see dontdoit's point of view as I was told by a former Euromanx pilot that there was quite a serious problem regarding the unfairness at Euromanx regarding opportunities and promotions for pilots within that company. Apparently the inexperienced Austrian pilots there were all promoted well above the more experienced pilots of other nationalities and the other experienced pilots were treated with total disrespect. My guess is that dontdoit was probably reacting to that.

Correct me if I'm wrong but was that true or just hearsay?

I really feel that a place like the Isle of Man is in dire need of it's own locally based and run air service, locally sponsored and professionally run. Flybe seem to be a solid and well run company and their standards are high in all respects. However, the Isle of Man is just another outstation for them and their IOM passengers are going to see a large price rise due to their monopoly on the key routes. As good a company as they are I don't see them as the long term solution for the Isle of Man. The island needs it's own dedicated home airline. The IOM Govt must be realizing it themselves now after Euromanx's failure. Perhaps the Govt could consider funding and launching a true national Manx airline that would be run to the same high standards as Manx Airlines was and funded properly by the Govt?

The "open skies" policy appears to have been a disaster over there. I was hearing stories of all kinds of corners being cut including basic airline safety! Competition might be great in some businesses but it doesn't always help in aviation, too many corners get cut to save cost, safety included! Flybe are not one of those culprits thankfully, they always do things professionally and safely. At least we have them. Pay your £500 and you'll arrive in one piece!

I would ask all of you professional people to approach the Isle of Man Govt about starting a solid Isle of Man airline again. As a regular business traveller I need that and my colleagues do too! Contact your local Govt representative and discuss it with him.

We all need Manx Airlines back so let's speak with the Govt and make it happen!

Good luck to all at Euromanx who lost their jobs.

Sanford

[Sanford]

Did that really happen?

Surely the CEO of Euromanx wouldn't just leave his staff behind without a goodbye party or something? No-one is that ****ty surely!!

Is that true?

[part69]

Very interesting read from the IOM Government- outlining their involvement with EuroManx.

http://www.gov.im/lib/news/cso/euromanxchiefmin.xml

[EI-CFC]

Flybe seem to be a solid and well run company and their standards are high in all respects.

Whatever about the first part of that sentence...I'm not so sure about the second bit

[EMX81L]

Sanford, I can confirm he left the island on Monday afternoon onboard a Flybe service. Watched him and his family board the aircraft myself

[lfc84]

My flight with euromanx was £19 single IOM-MAN.

Fare = £0
Taxes and charges = £19

When do the government get the "taxes and charges" ?
Do they get it at the time at ticketing or do they get it when the flight happens?

If the government get the money at the time of ticketing then I claim my £19.........!

[en2r]

My flight with euromanx was £19 single IOM-MAN.

Fare = £0
Taxes and charges = £19

When do the government get the "taxes and charges" ?
Do they get it at the time at ticketing or do they get it when the flight happens?

If the government get the money at the time of ticketing then I claim my £19.........!

Its when the flight happens. The airline only pays the taxes for those who actually fly (they don't pay the taxes for no shows), and so they are not paid until after the flights occurs.

[DajBuck]

Thanks and apologies

For those of you who don’t know me I was one of the operations team.

I just thought it would be good to start with a big thank you to all the people that I worked with, past and present. We made a great little family, especially the relationship between ops and the crew which was first rate. I would also like to thank all the other companies that supported us as you all did a fantastic job. We are sorry that our demise may affect some with those companies too. I would also like to thank our very loyal passengers, we are all very sorry that you have been affected by our demise as well. I would also like to openly apologise to Liam whom I talked into staying after he had another position to go to, and to Jason who I talked into leaving Flight Support. I did not know this was going to happen but we did make a good team along with ‘fun time’ Phil and Kinder.

With regards to our last working weeks, all of the people, including the managers, were not fully aware of what was happening. It was never that sort of a company. There was an autocrat at the top and all major decisions were made at board level. The first I new that something was afoot was when some suits were seen looking into files and spending a lot of time upstairs in the boardroom. This lead me to believe that a company was doing due diligence on our business but I did not know who. The management asked the question and was told that because of confidentiality clauses JS was not in a position to tell us who. We later found out when Aurigny was subbed in to cover OEHBC, via Aurigny, that Flybe were allegedly picking up the tab. When the aircraft did not continue covering the flying and we were told to manage with two aircraft. I thought that the deal was going wrong but we were all told “business as usual” as talks were still ongoing. There was a feeling in the company that everything was not well but because everyone loved working there, there was no drop off in working performance. To everyone’s credit, all people remained very professional even though the last week was very difficult. Several others and I expressed our disgust at the way we were treating our passengers but as there was no spare cash available we were told that we had to operate with just two aircraft.

On the 8th of May I received a call at 1300 asking if I could come into work and go straight to the CEOs office. This I duly did and was asked what we would do if OEHBB was unavailable and could I look into seeing if there was sub charter capacity available. At 2000 on the same day I was again requested to come into work and was asked to look at planning OEHBB to depart for Exeter the following morning. I was told that there was a board meeting in progress, which I was lead to believe was discussing the companies options. I was also told that I would be informed what we will be doing with the flights the following morning. I was asked not to discuss with anyone as nothing was yet finalized. Everyone new that OEHBB was going to Exeter it was just a matter of when. I duly came in the following morning and rightly or wrongly flight planned the aircraft to Exeter. After it took off, I and everyone else received an email that the company had gone into liquidation, classy!!

With regards to crew, of recent there was a bias towards hiring Austrians, as it was believed that the flight crew ratio should be 50/50. The last two employed were and Englishman and an Austrian. I know the next two people to be employed were to be and English F/O and an Austrian. Having said that, the recent Austrians were excellent choices as they were very proffesional pilots and a credit to their country (FJ and VS). There were no preferences made to when it came to upgrades and the next one to be promoted would have been Andy Hubbard. There were preferences with regard to management pilots as we were told that Austro Control wanted German speaking pilots in the office.

At the end of all this several members went out and had a fond farewell drink together. I had a chat with Mr EuroManx himself, Mark Kermeen, about organizing one next year so if interested make sure that either Mark or I have your details.

Finally I will add my vote to changing from open skies and give companies route licenses. Prices must be agreed with government so that all routes will be viable but so that in the monopoly position too much is not charged. Now that Flybe have spent a lot of money advertising against EuroManx and have succeeded in driving us out of business, they will want a return on their investment, and rightly so, but the licensing of routes would mean that the price structure will be a fair one. This policy will also protect Flybe and other airlines operating from the Island jobs, which is something that will benefit all. Competition is good for the passenger during the competing phase but with 40,000 people with potential problems do you think they believe it is a good idea? On this note a thank you must go to Manx2 for offering places on their aircraft and also to Flybe. We all like living and working on the island and all should be done to protect those working in aviation. I do not wish for anyone to go through what all of us at EuroManx are going through now.

Good luck to all
David

[GMIMA]

Yes - shame about the real Manx Airlines, it was the best airline I have ever worked for. pitty BA couldnt have left it alone.

I remember the good old days just doing a IOM BHX IOM and then back home to bed, good people to work for..................even you norman had your good days lol

cometo think of it, how hard would it be to set up manx airlines again? I believe Terry still owns the name Manx airlines.

[manx crab]

part69

Very interesting read from the IOM Government- outlining their involvement with EuroManx.

http://www.gov.im/lib/news/cso/euromanxchiefmin.xml

The answer from Hovis certainly makes interesting reading. The phrase "strung along" springs to mind.

[GMIMA]

manx crab

yes that statement is very interesting indeed. typical IOM gov unfortunatley.

with regard to euromanx flying there last dash 8 out on the morning they went into liquidation, I do think that silly woman who trys her best to run the airport should have been on the ball, at least mr pain would have had his finger on the pulse (or his camera) and would have had atc inform him of any dodgy filled flight plans??

oh well, bye bye to 1.6million quid

[OE-HBB]

How things are seen from Operations

I would also like to openly apologise to Liam whom I talked into staying after he had another position to go to

I would of not missed the last 6 months for anything, its been nothing but a pleasure and a blast, I HAVE NO REGRETS!

The way the team worked in the last week or so before our demise was nothing short of fantastic, we may not of had enough aircraft to actually run a full program, but we all agreed at the beginning of it all that we would strive to move EVERY passenger to the destination on the same day...
(Yep, that good old fashioned same day service gag.....)

We did it boys, we shifted every passenger, on the same day, we didn't hotac anyone.
I have always said, its not how you start its the way that you end, well , hold your heads up high. you did do a fantastic job, (and have been doing so for sometime)

The people who really took the stick were the Cabin crew, they lined themselves up daily for an ear bashing, they took it too,

Ladies, (Mark and David too) I take my hat off to you,
For the amount of BS that you had to endure in our last week . I count my lucky stars that I had a job behind a desk and not on the front line...

I think that you should be thanked as well David, There would always be at least one or two members of crew asking if you could re-jig the roster for them to fit in with something new that had come up and they had to sort out,which almost was always accommodated regardless of how busy you were.

We (the ops team) would always be asking various questions at random time of the day (or night), and you never once told us it was not the time to talk, or that was were were asking was really not worth the call, you listened, you guided and most importantly of all you danced!

Joking aside you have been a great manager to work for and I would do it again too. Thank you!

So you smasher... Good luck.... Were all counting on you!
------


"EuroManx Eight-Zero-Lima, that is all copied, thanks very much, we will see you on the ground!!!!!"

Liam

[flightlevel26]

OE-HBB,
Where's Michael Aspel and the red book?