Lies, damned lies and statistics
Statistics can be powerful. But they can also be dangerous if used incorrectly, as illustrated recently by one member of the European Parliament Commissioner. Commissioner MEP Gill of the UK Labour Party wanted to know what action the European Commission would take in response to a recent finding by the University of Ghent and the European Cockpit Association that ‘seven out of ten’ pilots working for low-cost airlines are self-employed. We thought this figure was a bit high so did some digging. In actual fact, the report found that less than two out of ten pilots working for low-cost airlines are self-employed but that 70% of pilots that are self-employed work for low-cost airlines. We presume this is where Commissioner MEP Gill got her figure from. She has clearly not understood the difference between the two statistics: a finding that low-cost airlines use a higher proportion of self-employed pilots than other types of airline does not necessarily translate into a finding that the majority of pilots working for low-cost airlines are self-employed. An innocent mistake? It might be worth keeping in mind that the report was written for the European Cockpit Association, which does nothing to hide its contempt for these contracts. The full report can be found here.Trackback from your site.