As far as Airways international fleet goes, I've been on their A330-200 and 757-200. I can't comment on service really since the 330 was from CLT-PHL and the 757 was going to the Caribbean. However, both were awful interior wise, hands down worst legroom I have ever had in coach. It was only comparable only to Hawaiian's 717s...which don't do any flights longer than an hour, where as these things to places like Berlin and Tel Aviv. I'm only 6'1 and its almost unbearable, luckily both times I had no one in the middle seat next to me so I could stretch sideways.
As far as other airlines go, I think it goes for all employees in all departments. This goes for United, Northwest, America West, Frontier, Delta, US Airways, a plethora of regionals, pretty much everyone I've ever flown on. I've seen gate agents get to the gate AT boarding time then say "we can't accommodate any seat changes, sorry" with open seats, because they didn't leave themselves any time to do anything but board. I've been in airplanes that had to wait for rampers for several minutes more times than I can remember, usually to see them walk out looking disgruntled, often with no wands, and not pay attention as the plane rolls in. I've seen MX called to the plane for a quick sign-off, only to be delayed 15 minutes because they took 25-30 to show up. I've seen F/A's do drink services on SFO-MRY/MOD(20 minute flights), yet say the flight is too short for one going to CIC and RDD(30-45 minute flights). I've seen 3 drink services in 3 hours, I've seen 1 in 5. I've even seen 3 SFO-FRA in BUISNESS on United, then probably close to 10 in COACH on Lufthansa on the way back. I've seen people misconnect to later hear pilots saying they didn't want to make up time because they wouldn't be paid the scheduled block time if they came in early, so I guess that extra 20 minutes of pay is worth stranding people in airports sometimes. I've overhead on Channel 9 on UA from ops "Sorry, we can't give you another gate, the ramp supervisors don't like their rampers having to move from one gate to another", so we wait 20-40 minutes.
Fact is, everyone likes to call each other lazy, but the majority of folks in the industry can be lazy themselves. I know I've gone to the soda machine after working 3 back-to-back flights then heard "77A at the gate looking for marshallers" and thought "they can hold a minute or two while I have something to drink, I'm exhausted", then slowly walked out there knowing the flight is late and people need to get off the plane. It's not often I don't bust my butt at work, but it happens. And its ok to have days like that sometimes, problem is, people get jaded and have those days all the time. And they get away with it because the people around them joke about their laziness and make it sound ok to do the bare minimum, because they themselves want to get away with it. What we end up with is a web of laziness in all departments and it shows. The only place I have never seen this is at Southwest, to their credit, and we all know that is the one company over most that is know to take care of its employees. I'm not the biggest fan of that company, but I think airline management around the US can learn a thing or two about the morale over there. If you treat your employees better and they feel like they want to preform for you, maybe they'll get to the gate on time to pre-plan a flight and meet the airplane, maybe they'll serve drinks with a smile on a flight where they can probably get away with not doing so, maybe they'll make up time on a late flight to leave the passengers with a positive impression after a lengthy delay. Problem is, as was already said, its all about spreadsheets and numbers here. So don't hold your breath.
