James Harrington can tell you plenty of stories, and so can I. The management of airlines generally does not care about quality, and does not perform closed loop corrective action.

If you are flying to reach a cruise ship connection plan on leaving the day before thus including an over night stay.  We took a chance, did not do so, and at a midwest airport had boarded the second plane on a flight with that one stopover.  We were about to move away from the terminal when there was a strikingly sharp and loud shudder as the plane lurched forward and backward again as if hit by a vehicle!  The captain immediately said out loud what we all were thinking, that what had just happened did not sound good!  He said he would insist on an analysis of the event and that we should sit tight.  After ten minutes or so he came back on and said that the process of moving the aircraft away from the terminal involved using a truck with a long pole and in our case there was "play" in that connection resulting in a strong jerk to the plane.  He explained that mainternance would now have to examine the undercarriage of the plane before we could leave.  I began a series of calculations to judge how much time we had before missing the boat!  As we approached an hour of wait time the pilot explained that inspection had to follow a series of government regulations but that surely we would be on our way soon.  My worries included wondering about the process used to move the plane and a possible training inadequacy regarding the truck operator.  Finally as we were beginning to write off the cruise, the captain said we had passed the inspection.  We did manage to get on the ship but it took some aggresive behavior on our part at the port. When playing the part of a pawn in a complex process it's a good idea to program in extra time to allow for Murphy's Law!