dead nuts
You are right on in your assertions vis the attitude of airline management. I heard it all from a cousin who was a higher-up in the corporate offices of one of the major airlines. Insurance and statistics... that's the plan in a nutshell.
BTW one interesting thing he told me; he was on the committee deciding whether this airline was going to computerize it's ticketing and such or not. The sales pitch was that computerization would speed up boarding, make for more on time performance and save a ton of money.
But after they computerized and measured performance they found that every parameter had deteriorated as a direct result of simply using the computers. It was slower, more costly, etc etc.
But this cousin and his team decided to keep the computers. Even though they made for a worse customer experience, which stains the image of the company in the average consumer's eyes, they saw one tremendous benefit that was too good, to the point the customer be damned. Can you guess what the advantage was?
Computers keep far more accurate and parse-able statistics... and this makes insurance companies very happy.
