Originally Posted by
Colesmore
If the many facets of the business we as consumers witness and read about as being stretched, over worked or under resourced are there for us to see why is it inconceivable the same impacts are occurring within the maintenance & engineering dept where the traveling public don't see? Were they immune from layoffs, and not prone to covid or fatigue themselves? This is not to say it's systematic of course, but looking at how they've handled much else I doubt they're operating as resiliently as they were pre covid. Does this make them less safe? We'll I can't see how it wouldn't. Are they therefore less safe than other operators, I'd say almost certainly not
Interesting points. Factors in play at the moment include :
A recent management regime that has brought conflict with staff, with resulting staff morale issues
A management regime in transition
Large number of experienced staff have recently left, without doing proper handover or transition; lots of new and inexperienced staff
Staff being put under significant extra pressure by the fallout from dysfunctional and highly unreliable IT
Additional pressures of having to recommission mothballed aircraft of various different types into service
A customer contact operation under permanent siege
Demand picking up faster than available resources, resulting in extra pressure on operational functions, eg baggage handling staff
Co-incidence of external factors : Covid and weather
You see stuff like these as contributing factors in post mortem reports when big things happen. There's an argument that says these factors may be putting the margins of safety at BA under more pressure at the moment than other operators. I read a report a couple of days ago about about a flight taking a long departure delay because of aircraft damage done during baggage loading. Just another isolated 'little thing' ?