Originally Posted by
burg_rtw
This:
”In addition to unconditional safety, we strive to give you a feeling of well-being on every journey. But these high standards of comfort are challenging to maintain in everyday life: seats, screens and other components are susceptible to defects due to intensive use. Repairing them quickly is often more difficult than expected.
Short ground times of just a few hours in our regular flight operations rarely provide the opportunity to carry out immediate repairs. Fixing minor defects on-the-spot could in any case lead to delays or even cancellation of the flight. We want to minimize such effects for you as much as possible.
We are also affected by shortage of materials: last year, for example, there were many defective seat cushions. First, the introduction of the new generation of seats was delayed due to supply-chain disruptions. Then, we ran low on spare parts for the current seat cushions because we had already reduced their production. This resulted in a noticeable bottleneck, but we have since invested millions to proactively replace all seat cushions. However, we were also experiencing staff shortages, which affected our operational processes repeatedly.
With Smart Repair, our intelligent repair approach for cabin surfaces, we can rectify minor defects despite short ground times. We have also increased our cabin budget by 10 million euros to a total of around 90 million euros. This will enable us to build up our own material stocks and counteract disrupted supply chains. And with 200 additional employees, we can meet the requirements of our growing fleet better.”
What a lot of drivel full of halfhearted excuses.
They let go 30,000 employees during the pandemic when the company was bailed out by the taxpayer and management increased its fixed salaries. It is simply inequitable to now lament that a shortage of staff is hindering operational performance.
They took ages to introduce a (arguably flawed) new business product and in turn reduced spares for the current one. Again - they hold passengers hostage to an operationally substandard practice due to their own shortcomings and mismanagement.
Fixing their seats must have taken the same time and effort during their whole life span - it cannot be more complicated now. If it takes more time in total that's likely as the volume of malfunctions increased which quite likely can be attributed to the product having exceeded its life span. That, too, is down to the miserably failed Allegris introduction.
Summing it up, they simply cannot expect my sympathy for their issues.