Both the public, airlines, and all other stakeholders (including governments) are to blame for the state of the industry to a degree. The public want to fly all over the world for a euro, and to remain competitive, and profitable, all airlines outsource anything not attached to the aircraft (and things that are in some cases). The industry is not liberalised and in some cases such as the US completely protected from market forces and competition. The other end of the scale is counties like Italy that prop up a 'zombie' airline that simply should not be allowed to operate.

You pay for what you get 'Willy"....I imagine the cost of your ticket was similar to the cost of filling a car tank with petrol, and how far would that get you?......look in the mirror before criticising "airline people' per se.

1.1BILLION people have flown on a flight since March 2020 - a total of 41 people have or are suspected of catching COVID from flying.

41 people out of 1.1billion.

While you - or rather IATA's modelling - may well be in the right ballpark, the actual figure is demonstrably unprovable, unless you are suggesting that every one of those 1.1 billion people was tested a week or so after flying, which sounds a tad unlikely.

What IATA actually said was "there is no way to establish an exact tally of possible flight-associated cases".

EDI gorundhandling is some of the worst in my experience and is staffed by officious and unhelpful jobsworth's. It can't be a Scottish thing because Inverness and Prestwick and Glasgow are all efficient and friendly. It's been like this for decades and I often wonder why.

I can't speak for Prestwick or Inverness, but I wonder if the answer lies in that clever 1980's ad campaign: 'GlasgowSmiles better'

What do you expect from Angloflot? The time I flew with them and the stew looked down her nose at me when I asked for cream for my coffee was the last time I ever flew with them! OK, it wasn't their fault, but there is no need for them to be rude.

That sounds very like one of those statistics where you say "they cannot possibly know that," and it turns out to be an estimate based on spurious grounds, aka "complete guess". This applied to most of the data presented as solid facts by Chris Whitty (for UK readers only) a few evening ago, but at least the word "Estimate" was clearly visible on the charts, even though Dr Whitty failed to point that out.

Frustrations
 

We in the business for 000s of years combined are all just venting our frustrations.
Everyone has a limit.
50% Salary reductions in the Middle East
Kurtzarbeit in Germany
New contracts in Europe
Mass redundancies everywhere.

Better we all vent about airstairs, slots, taxi times and crisp flavours than do something stupid.
I know of suicides since this crisis started.
Better to complain about the crisps...

Cheers DCS99, I agree. For those above you are not the arbiter of what goes into pprune. Secondly particularly cabin crew(e) you obviously do not do irony as your little bitchy comments every couple of pages extended the thread even longer. Hilarious. I am well aware of the current crisis affecting aviation which saddens me greatly. However that does not absolve BA from providing a normal service. This does not include Bollinger but it does include the steps to get off. Just for balance I took the same flight a week later and it was all seamless apart from the stale crisps.

My own experience of EDI through the years was mostly sub-standard, so I doubt Covid-related issues have made much difference. On a few occasions in a busy security hall I have seen the change happen where bags suddenly flow easily through the scanner with no diversion to the "bag check" line which has backed up. It's understandable I suppose. Many passengers have two or even three trays - and get shouted at to take them all to the single tray area to refill their bags. Even LHR does this better.

Unable to board because the corridor is closed to allow arrivals from another gate ambling past was common enough - no big deal except for the subsequent missed TO slot / late LHR arrival / missed connection etc.

Arriving at EDI early, waiting for a gate/jetty/steps - not unusual. Deplaning onto a bus to be driven all the way back across the airport, stopping (it seems) every few yards for various traffic, to arrive at the newest/latest entry point - which then requires an amazingly long walk back to the arrivals hall. Hopefully you have no luggage to wait for - that can be a legendary period in which time seems to stand still.

Not all is bad - immigration has improved considerably. After the absolute shambles of the first and second versions of passport reading machines, they now work well and quickly.

To be fair, EDI is primarily a shopping mall with some nice eateries, and the world's most expensive car park. Sometimes they remember there is a runway attached....

Unless EDI is essential, personally I would take the train to MAN which is a better experience by some distance. NCL is good, but of course much smaller.

Wow, I find it hard to believe someone would take a 3.5 hour train journey or 4 hour drive to avoid Edinburgh airport.

BAA under invested in Edinburgh for years, spending money elsewhere.

In the 8 years (including this covid year) it has flourished with routes and passenger numbers outside of the BAA. Routes I personally would never have thought when I worked there in the 80s

I should have clarified it more. Most of my travel is long haul, and Cathay / HKG is my main carrier/ hub. So EDI to LHR to HKG or Carlisle to MAN to HKG is pretty much equal in overall time.

Why is it so hard to believe?

As you say, central London to central Edinburgh is advertised as a total travel time by train of 3:30.

The flight from (for example) Heathrow to Edinburgh airport is advertised by BA as 1:25. But don’t forget to add in your travel time between both airports and their city centres. A comfortable check in time, plus time to move through ‘security’ and the shopping centres laughingly called Terminals. Plus boarding and baggage reclaim should you have had to put any items in the hold. Then add in delays for stand allocation.

For city centre to city centre, I doubt there’s a cigarette paper between the two total travel times.

Add in the associated additional transport costs of travelling to and from airports, and actually flying between some city pairs starts to look pretty non-sensical to me?

What’s the attraction?

Fastest London/Edinburgh train journey is about four and a quarter hours.

Apologies you did not make it clear you lived in Carlise so Manchester a better option.

It read like you were nearer Edinburgh and would use Manchester by preference.
The train time I mentioned was Edinburgh to Manchester's I never mentioned London.

Sort-of follow-up to this:
My younger daughter is currently "trapped" with others on a plane at LHR at the moment - arrived from EDI and the jetty at LHR T5 has broken as it went to "meet" the plane. So they are stuck like sardines waiting for steps to be brought to the plane to get off. Whose fault is this fiasco? BA's, Heathrow Airport's, someone else's.... or is it just "fate"? The plane will have been on the ground about the same length as the flight itself was, before passengers can start to deplane.

Is this a shambles or not ??

How has this excuse for a thread got 7 pages!!

This is the real shambles.

Tweak the page size in Control Panel and it's only 5. :O

Dear God .,,,
I thought this was all over but now we have to listen to someone’s daughter “‘ trapped “‘ on board a plane

It's BA.
Look the operation is screwed and has been for weeks. I suspect they're understaffing to save money, they have no choice, but the balance is tricky. It's now very common to land and be waiting quite some time for a stand, or steps. It's also very common for buses to be exceedingly late. What had almost become a well oiled machine has been thrown into disrepair with good people leaving and COVID procedures meaning the likes of buses being cleaned and then cleaned again. Operational efficiency is gone.

Is it BA's fault? 100% But it's not going to be fixed quickly, they're doing their best but the outcome is an ongoing poor passenger experience.