mattx Posted April 19, 2010 Posted April 19, 2010 (edited) British Airways seeks compensation - well it had to happen - first the banks, now going to be the Airlines. BBC News - British Airways seeks compensation for ash chaos I wonder if British Ice Cream Sellers can claim compensation from the government if we get a carp summer ? Edited April 19, 2010 by mattx language
AngryTechnician Posted April 19, 2010 Posted April 19, 2010 I don't think there's a snowball's chance in a volcano they'll get it from UK funds (see what I did there?). Any party that doesn't knock the idea on the head can kiss their election hopes goodbye.
featured_spectre Posted April 19, 2010 Posted April 19, 2010 (edited) What makes me laugh is that they should have learnt from the St Helena volcano! The ash then stopped flights, and instead of thinking of a filtration system for the engines, they just carried on like normal. Idiots! Edited April 19, 2010 by witch
torledo Posted April 19, 2010 Posted April 19, 2010 (edited) British Airways seeks compensation - well it had to happen - first the banks, now going to be the Airlines. BBC News - British Airways seeks compensation for ash chaos I wonder if British Ice Cream Sellers can claim compensation from the government if we get a bad summer ? I am looking carefully at what we did after September 11. We can use similar instruments. We are indeed facing exceptional circumstances," wonder if that provides scope for airlines to get some form of financial assitance. come on brown, your the one who supposedly saved the economy, why not provide support to our important national carriers ? first the bank bailouts, then support for the car industry, heck the euro countries are going to be bailing out entire countries!!!....why not the airlines for an unprecedented event beyond their control ? what willie walsh is asking for seems entirely reasonable given the context. Edited April 19, 2010 by SYSMAN_MK language in quoted post
Guest theeldergeek Posted April 19, 2010 Posted April 19, 2010 (edited) British Airways seeks compensation - well it had to happen - first the banks, now going to be the Airlines. BBC News - British Airways seeks compensation for ash chaos I wonder if British Ice Cream Sellers can claim compensation from the government if we get a bad summer ? Grrrrr! Small businesses PLAN for the bad times as well as the good! There'll be times when business is slow, and times when business is good. These MASSIVE companies making MASSIVE amounts of money need to plan for eventualities such as this, I believe it's called saving for a rainy day? If the rainy day doesn't happen, you clean up. If it does, you have enough to tick over. I'm going to claim compensation for the water and shampoo I used to wash the car the other day, now it's all covered in grit. And then I'm going to place the entire blame for this situation on Iceland. Their volcano, their fault. Or God. One or the other. Edited April 19, 2010 by SYSMAN_MK language in quoted post
torledo Posted April 19, 2010 Posted April 19, 2010 (edited) Grrrrr! Small businesses PLAN for the bad times as well as the good! There'll be times when business is slow, and times when business is good. These MASSIVE companies making MASSIVE amounts of money need to plan for eventualities such as this, I believe it's called saving for a rainy day? If the rainy day doesn't happen, you clean up. If it does, you have enough to tick over. I'm going to claim compensation for the water and shampoo I used to wash the car the other day, now it's all covered in grit. And then I'm going to place the entire blame for this situation on Iceland. Their volcano, their fault. Or God. One or the other. and how exactly do they plan for this type of stuff......my understanding is they can't get insurance for such events. And as said, the decision to ground flights is taken out of their control. If a major airline is losing millions of pounds a day, and the situation carries on for days possibly weeks, then they'd surely want the situation resolved. I suppose the car industry should have factored in a consumer balance sheet recession, before it was felt necessary for the govt. to spend hundreds of millions in supporting that particular industry. Maybe they wouldn't have needed financial assistance if they'd adjusted their business models to cope with consumer not accessing as much credit. but then again, may be you lot have twigged on to the issue of moral hazard. Moral hazard didn't seem to matter last year though, and for select parts of the economy....did it ? Now all of a sudden everyone is incredulous at the airlines. double standards maybe ? Edited April 19, 2010 by torledo
localzuk Posted April 19, 2010 Posted April 19, 2010 and how exactly do they plan for this type of stuff...... One of the key things I was taught about economics and business, even at AS level, is that maintaining a healthy working capital supply is important. This means having reserves that can maintain you for a reasonably long period of time, just in case. If your business has been operating for the length of time BA has, and you don't have that figured out, then you're in for real trouble!
broc Posted April 20, 2010 Posted April 20, 2010 (edited) Why is it that everyone expects the Govt to provide a safety net for every eventuality? Where do you draw the line? I am in favour of providing humanitarian aid for people in real need but don't see why the state should bail out private companies at the expense of it's own workers. You can imagine the situation; the Govt pays out £m to the airline industry and then has to cut even more public sector jobs to balance the books.... where is the justice in that? Successive Governments have allowed manufacturing industry to go to the wall for decades so why prop up BA? Oh, of course I forgot...... business needs BA to carry them off on their trips abroad..... I wonder how many 'ordinary' people 'Fly BA' ? BA is only an important national carrier to the business community...... Edited April 20, 2010 by broc
AyatollahPies Posted April 20, 2010 Posted April 20, 2010 wonder if that provides scope for airlines to get some form of financial assitance. come on brown, your the one who supposedly saved the economy, why not provide support to our important national carriers ? first the bank bailouts, then support for the car industry, heck the euro countries are going to be bailing out entire countries!!!....why not the airlines for an unprecedented event beyond their control ? what willie walsh is asking for seems entirely reasonable given the context. The country is already bankrupt. By all means feel free to send a cheque to BA, but I don't see why my taxes should fund it. Oh, we aren't a Euro country, yet we're still having to fund part of this bail out of Greece. I'll give it a couple of years and Germany will have pulled out of the Euro, which in turn, will destroy the currency and member states will end up using their own currencies again.
TechMonkey Posted April 20, 2010 Posted April 20, 2010 I thought BA had been trumpeting how they had 4bn in reserve due to some shrewd guff they had done not so long ago. Have they burned through that all ready?
torledo Posted April 20, 2010 Posted April 20, 2010 I thought BA had been trumpeting how they had 4bn in reserve due to some shrewd guff they had done not so long ago. Have they burned through that all ready? according to the bbc article, they do have substantial cash reserves and credit lines to get through such situations, i think it might be the case that they are seeking compensation because of this decision which was taken out of their hands. Not because they desperately need compensation to continue operating. broc brings up an interesting question about where do you draw the line on the general point about govt. spending, and what kind of assistance should be provided to private sector companies. And under what circumstances. I suppose when there is a risk of job losses because of a persistent threat of downturn any kind of govt. financial support is acceptable ?
Guest Guest Posted April 20, 2010 Posted April 20, 2010 (edited) What about everyone who has had to find their way home? Do they get compo; travel expenses, hotels, food, lose of earnings....? What about my mum who child minds for people who are stuck abroad, does she get compo? Kenyan flower producers? Brazilian fruit... As far as im concerned, if an "act of god" isnt a good enough reason for insurance to pay out then it isnt a good enough reason to compansate greedy businesses. Edited April 20, 2010 by Guest
featured_spectre Posted April 20, 2010 Posted April 20, 2010 As far as im concerned, if an "act of god" isnt a good enough reason for insurance to pay out then it isnt a good enough reason to compansate greedy businesses. Someone is suing British Airways as they are not refunding his ticket due to this "act of god" - he ended up arranged for alternative transport and informed them and they said that he couldn't get a refund as he hadn't tried to get home via British Airways (despite ringing every day to try to get a different flight to a country nearer!! He ended up telling them "Prove there is a god and I will accept it is an act of god and you don't have to refund me" which had me in stitches!
OutToLunch Posted April 20, 2010 Posted April 20, 2010 I'm right behind them getting compensation - as long as they get it by winning a court case against God or by suing the church of their choice...
localzuk Posted April 20, 2010 Posted April 20, 2010 Its now being said that the CAA took advice from the met office who got their data from an over cautious modelling system. Will the airlines sue the met office for false information? Said by who? I've yet to see any scientific bodies saying this - only the airlines themselves...
creese Posted April 20, 2010 Posted April 20, 2010 I'm right behind them getting compensation - as long as they get it by winning a court case against God or by suing the church of their choice... Wasn't that a Billy Connolly film. Just back from a hospital appointment, Sky news wa 98% about airlines, advertisments 100% airline adverts or long haul holiday destinations. Quite clever in a way.
laputa01 Posted April 20, 2010 Posted April 20, 2010 YOU MEAN THEY DIDN'T BUY THE VOLCANO INSURANCE??? YouTube - Volcano Insurance
Rydra Posted April 20, 2010 Posted April 20, 2010 (edited) What makes me laugh is that they should have learnt from the St Helena volcano! The ash then stopped flights, and instead of thinking of a filtration system for the engines, they just carried on like normal. Idiots! Unfortunately it's rather hard to filter a jet engine... they work by pumping air in the front, and throwing it out the back... If you put a filter over them that can filter granules of metal and rock that are not even 1mm across, it tends to restrict the airflow, which causes airplanes to rarely make it into the air, and more likely to fall out should they make it up there If you want an extreme (but possibly cool) way of looking at what would happen, get some iron filings, maybe some ground up stone/granite, and stick it in a blender till the blender gives up.... Maybe mix in some water too (since it's high altitude, full of clouds, and that volcano blew up a glacier ) and see what happens when you mix rock dust, metal granules, rapid changes in temperature, and water Edited April 20, 2010 by Rydra
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