Mr. Toad! A very interesting post, and I read every word. I can’t help wondering that the bigger an organisation becomes, the more susceptible it becomes to being used as a cash cow, whether by unions, management, or the taxman.
In 1982, British Airways posted a £545m loss, but was able to turn that around and became for a while the world’s most profitable airline under Tom (later Lord) King. He was a Thatcher protégé, but later turned out to be a bit of a ***t. The airline became profitable by axing less popular routes, and by a dramatic slimming down of the workforce. At about that time, Richard Branson made a phone call to Britain’s CAA (Civil Aviation Authority, but known amongst private pilots as the Campaign Against Aviation) and said
”Hello, I’d like to start my own airline, please!” They were probably taken aback, but Branson went ahead anyway, and so was born Virgin Atlantic Airways. Of nine airlines that have flown me across the Atlantic, Virgin has been my favourite. Sorry, Toad.
British Airways got into hot water with their infamous “dirty tricks” campaign. Virgin was not big enough to run their own mainframe computer, so they rented capacity on BA’s IBM mainframe. Their business was run in a LPAR (logical partition) which is supposed to make it look like you have your own machine. But BA was able to spy on Virgin business, and formed the untidy habit of telephoning Virgin customers to offer a free upgrade onto a BA flight. Branson didn’t like that when he found out. He took BA to court in England and got about £600,000 in damages, but he didn’t stop there. Took ‘em to court in the US over other matters and I believe he got £15m. Cheapest crossing I got out of Virgin was £145 inc tax from London to New York (Newark)
One good thing about BA was that they used Rolls Royce engines, and not those General Electric American pisspots. A baggage handler I knew that worked at O'Hare said he could HEAR the difference when a BA plane taxied up to the stand - the engines sounded much sweeter. Sorry, guys - couldn't resist!)As for easyJet, Stelios decided to give the flying public what they wanted. They used to fly me every week from Luton to Nice – at a very reasonable price – sometimes as low as £49 one way (all taxes included), but more usually £69 or £79. So far as I know, they haven’t got into any silly price war with RyanAir – I don’t think they compete on routes. But BA got up to their dirty tricks again by forming the GO airline. I steadfastly refused to fly on GO, as it was designed as part of a cartel to put easyJet out of business by operating similar routes under similar terms, at prices below cost. That’s illegal, and I don’t know how they were able to get away with it. Besides, I have neither forgotten nor forgiven BA for making me sit for 12 hours with my body twisted with my knees pressed against the seat in front, and have avoided them at all costs ever since. Stelios ran a competition to estimate how much GO would lose in its first year. The figure was £22m.
As a passenger on easyJet, it seems that their formula for success is to cut out business and first, and to have their own reservations system – a non-ticketing airline. I book on the web. They operate only out of low cost airports like Luton, and never places like Heathrow. By operating only B737s it means that all their pilots can fly all their aircraft. And they need only one simulator, so there’s money saved there as well as money saved on space to accommodate it. (Mr. Toad – can you comment on the licence/rating issue for different variants of the same plane? Is a 737-300 rated pilot also rated to fly 737-800? Still only one sim needed? I ask because the –800 has entered service with the no-frills airlines.) The downside of a no-frills deal is that there is no refund if you don’t show up, and you can’t just “catch a later flight” if you miss your designated flight. But what the hey – you pays your money, and takes your choice. I got a bit fed up with the tardiness of some EJ flights. The Friday evening Nice to Luton was often late. The aircraft in service would fly the route first thing in the morning, then do an afternooner to Amsterdam, then do the Nice flight again. Well they started operating that plane to Barcelona instead of AMS for the afternooner – a much longer distance – so the Nice flight at the end of the day was often late. The problem was that Boeing couldn’t seem to crank out enough B737s to keep up with the airline’s demands! But they’re OK now.
Richard Branson is a man of vision. I wish he would form his own political Party (Virgin Democrats?) and run for Prime Ministerial office, as I would vote for him. He has an interesting past – smoked a bit of naughty stuff, very nearly went down for selling records designated for export in British record shops, and was expelled from school – for shagging the headmaster’s daughter! ROFL!!! As British politicians go with sleaze, Branson would fit right in – lol.
I’ll leave you with a pic I took on that Dublin trip – the statue of Molly Malone who sold cockles and muscles alive alive-O from her barrow, down streets broad and narrow. Although she appears to be doing her day job, she’s already dressed for her evening job – can you guess what THAT was?
