Do some of our airline executives and decision makers live in a different reality to the rest of us? The last few months have seen the 'fruits' of banking liberalisation visited on us all, with the most widespread recession the world has ever seen. We are still being told that the people who successfully argued for the 'light touch' regulation which led to this disaster, are worth their telephone number salaries and bonuses!

In our own industry, some more 'Jurassic-style' airline managements are resisting the implementation of best medical and scientific knowledge in the field of fatigue of flying crew; and others are 'slapping the faces' of their loyal staff by denying them access to new employment opportunities; staff who have invested large parts of their own expected remuneration in the future of their company.

In this edition of Cockpit News, you can read more about these 'old style' management attitudes, and the slow response to them of the regulator. ECA is committed to ensuring our members are able to continue to provide a full range of Professional Association services to every single professional cockpit crew member that seeks their support. We will vigorously engage with the institutions to achieve that goal - whether we will need to do more, is down to their response.