The “council estate” thing was just a joke based on the oft-used and well known Southwest version I also included later on – sorry if anyone was offended.

Absolutely! Although I still contend that low-fare carriers have made the flying experience less pleasant overall.

Having said that, I stick by my comments about low-fare carriers. Whilst they may be good for most of the travelling public, the drive for lower and lower fares has been at the expense of the staff who work in the industry. Erosion in terms and conditions that low-fare carriers have applied to their own staff (and by consequence of needing to compete, the staff of other airlines), has turned the airline industry overall into a far less pleasant place to work.

Think of all the complaints from farmers over the price reduction demands made by companies like Tesco – Tesco want to give customers low prices for items like meat and milk, so they make demands on farmers that result in it being difficult for them to make money. Same principal applies with low fare-carriers. Next time you buy a flight for next to nothing, remember its the staff who “handle” you through your journey who have a less pleasant working life than was the case before the low-fare sector caught on.

This latest innovation by FlyBe will be another change than impinges on staff for the worse – there will be far more arguments at checkin over paying for baggage, and far more problems for cabin crew who will inevitably be forced to work out how to stow all the extra carry-ons in the limited cabin storage space on a packed DHC-8. Remember its not the poor sods who have to deal with irate customers who have brought in these innovations. Nothing, repeat NOTHING, like this would be introduced unless those at the top of the tree believe that they can either (a) save money/decrease costs or (b) make more money, as a result of the change. It is they who make the decisions, but it is the staff at the sharp end who have to deal with the fall out and the crap.

Andy

It’s called the cold winds of market forces and was bound to happen once deregulation had started with the dissolution of the CAB, and the lifting of the IATA fare coordination cartel, and the introduction of the EC third liberalisation package.

Competition driving down of unit cost has happened in other industries and the airline industry is not a protected species. It may be sad (and I speak as one of the many who were made redundant from IATA a few years ago) but it is a fact of life given that so many airlines have been privatised – there’s no feather beds anymore.