In a busy month for air travel, two topics totally dominated the discussion on Cheapflights News & Views this January – industrial action by British Airways staff and the roll-out of full-body scanners.

Neither subject is likely to go away any time soon, with BA cabin crew edging closer to a probable ‘Yes’ vote for striking in March, and Heathrow just today beginning trials of its so-called naked scanners.

Below we present our favourite comments posted to this blog over the past month. Thank you to everyone who has joined the debate, and our apologies if your remarks didn’t get featured this time.

 
On the British Airways strike…

“Having just been made redundant because my company re-located to China to save costs, it makes me madder than a wet hen to see people almost throw their company to the dogs by their action. At least BA are trying to save SOME of the jobs, and to remain in the UK as a major employer. Wake up you sheep, and stop blindly following the union dictators. THEY will still have jobs if BA go into administration, like Japan airlines did yesterday. Trust me, saving some of the jobs is better than losing them all.”
Rick Ferries – 20 January

“BA cabin crew please think before you strike. I am in the care industry myself and our funds are always being cut. If I and others alike went on strike then again it would be our customers who suffer and that is not what we would want.”
Julia Lawrence – 27 January

“Bear in mind the state of the civil aviation industry (the number of bankruptcies), the size of BA’s pension deficit (sufficient to render the airline almost worthless), comparable pay and allowance packages for rival airlines, that cabin crew wishing to work for budget carriers such as Ryanair PAY THEIR OWN TRAINING COSTS (!) and that the packages (pay, allowances and overseas stays) that BA cabin crew receive are astonishingly generous. Sadly, they misinterpret the fact that they have enjoyed these for a long time as an innate right to enjoy them in perpetuity. Wrong!”
Anthony Dunn – 23 January

 
On the roll-out of full-body scanners…

“This is simply an infringement of basic civil liberties by any standards. We are being asked to have the equivalent of naked pictures taken of us, our wives and our children. We all have every right and a duty to say no.”
Anees – 5 January

“I think the scanners are a violation of human rights. I do not want any government to have jurisdiction over my body and mandatorily subject me to radiation and extract images of my body. Perhaps a respectful pat down choice? I am seriously considering not flying into airports with such mandatory intrusion.”
Jeanne Gabriel – 27 January

“I went to Auschwitz in 2004 – that was a violation of human rights. Article 1 of the UN declaration for human rights states – ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.’ Given that these machines do not show detail of the person … I don’t see where the human rights issue comes into it.”
Smarkacz – 29 January

 
On Ryanair’s plans for a ‘pee fee’…

“Galactically stupid idea, if this is implemented – I won’t be flying with them again.”
Alex – 18 January

“Ryanair can’t put anymore seats in. The 737-800 is legally certified to carry a maximum of 189 passengers, which Ryanairs aircraft already do. Additional seats would require extra exit doors which cannot be retro-fitted to this type.”
Jon – 19 January

 
On Aer Lingus’ withdrawal from Gatwick…

“What a pity. Their service to Faro which I have used many times is the best available on that route. The staff are excellent and the fact that you can reserve your seat (unlike another airline I could mention!) is a winner for me. Shame, shame, shame.”
Vic – 23 January

 
© Cheapflights Ltd (Creative Commons image: altemark / Flickr)

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 10:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.