Live on Bloomberg TV

00:00Obviously our first concern is with the family of the victims . But at first glance of this tragedy you know Lufthansa Well you know German Wings well. How you've mentioned about cost structure issues. Do we also can we point these cost structure issues and other concerns about pilot age can we lead to some concerns about safety thanks to you for having me. Look I think in principle as you said the most important thing at the moment is there's been a tragic loss of life and it'll take some time until families can be looked at when we look at this particular situation. We don't have a lot of information yet. The company is being disclosing a lot of information about the captain but I haven't seen any information yet about the first officer. It's quite normal for airlines like this to have very young very junior usually quite an experienced trainee first officers. So what I would be interested in trying to find out is who was operating the plane on takeoff. Was it the captain or was it the first officer. Naturally I imagine once the there was a problem that the captain didn't take control. But we haven't heard who was flying. So that's one thing. Now here's the second part . Sorry go ahead. No go ahead. What's the second answer. So the second part that is typically first officers in Europe tend to be younger than in many other markets such as North America . They tend to be younger than Nasdaq a lot less flying experience . It's the nature of pilot recruitment in Europe. So this is another reason why I would want to know something about the pilot. The other point you made about cost cutting. There's been a lot of questions about whether the recent trend in crashes or incidents or accidents is something that should be worrying. I think one of the challenges in the industry is that the industry worldwide is cost cutting and there are questions about whether that is going to lead to safety issues. I think it's difficult to understand how we can have dramatic cost cutting without pushing for the limits to be pushed to the limits. Obviously within legal limits one has to wonder whether this is going to lead to an increase albeit from a very very safe level. We might see an incremental increase in safety issues. I want to go back to your issue about the age of pilots . The pilots tend to be have enough experience but as you mentioned the first Officers there sometimes when the planes are at cruising altitude they are in control of the aircraft . You've said that they're as young as 21 years of age. Some maybe even have apprentice licenses only. This sounds like a safety issue. Again we're not speculating on what caused this crash but is this a worrying trend in the LC you see a proliferation globally. So it's the one thing I want to be very careful is is I wouldn't call this an industry seat. I think one of the things we need to be careful of those German doings was created as analysis in 2002 and up until 2013 and rank has been Nikkei daughter independent analysis from what comes up over the last two years and comes and has rebranded all of its short haul operations that don't touch Frankfurt in Munich into German means. This is essentially a Lufthansa aircraft and it just comes off operation with a new paint job. So I think you know I wouldn't brand this along with other rails systems around the world. To me this is a look comes over the name. It was a Lufthansa aircraft and Lufthansa group . So you know I would not want to separate it as being the FCC daughter company because it's you know Lufthansa maintenance on that aircraft until last year .

Could Airline Cost-Cutting Lead to Safety Issues?

Aviado Partners Consulting Managing Director Shakeel Adam discusses the crash of the Germanwings Airbus in the French Alps with Bloomberg's Stephen Engle on "Trending Business." (Source: Bloomberg)

More From Trending Business
All episodes and clips