DEFCON4

Battle To Recruit Pilots

Qantas Airways

Airlines may find themselves unable to take advantage of the expected boom in air travel if the issue of pilot shortages is not addressed, a senior aviation executive says.
Boeing's chief customer officer for flight services Roei Ganzarski says the aviation sector must do more to attract new people to a career as a pilot, as it has lost some of the romance of earlier decades.

Should nothing change, the potential consequences range from higher ticket prices as airlines cut back services to lower safety standards.

"Economics teaches us that for any demand supply will be met because you can make money there," Mr Ganzarski said in an interview.

"The question is and the concern is what type of supply. Will the quality diminish? Will the standards diminish?"

Europe and the US, where pilots have struggled to find work or been laid off as airlines either collapse or shrink, have proved a helpful pipeline of pilots for fast-growing airlines in South East Asia or the Middle East.

Jetstar group chief executive Bruce Buchanan said the low-cost carrier, which is a subsidiary of Qantas Airways, had a variety of recruitment options.

"We are working with our cadet program, we are working with our recruitment pipelines around the world," Mr Buchanan said in an interview with AAP in October 2011.

"Given the problems in Europe and North America, I can tell you we are getting huge numbers of applications out of those sorts of places where people see the opportunities to work for a fast-growing dynamic business like Jetstar in Asia."

While Jetstar according to Mr Buchanan had not experienced any problems with pilot numbers, other airlines have not been so lucky.

Mr Ganzarski said there were some examples where airlines have been unable to recruit competent and qualified people to operate a full schedule.

"There are some airlines out there that have brand new airplanes sitting on the tarmac because they are unable to find people to fly them," Mr Ganzarski said.

"That's not talking about growth, that is talking about just regular operations."

Boeing's 2011 pilot and technician outlook estimated that by 2030 the global aviation sector would require 460,000 new commercial airline pilots.

To meet this target, the Boeing report estimated that 1,200 new pilot instructors would be need to enter the industry every year for the next 20 years.

"Right now, the speed of the acceleration of growth in aviation is outpacing the ability of the labour pool to catch up, both in recruiting the labour and training the labour," Mr Ganzarski said.

Mr Ganzarski said young people in modern society valued having a formal qualification, such as a degree, when undertaking formal study.

However, learning to become a pilot often yielded just a licence to fly and no other professional qualifications.

"You are talking about a program that in fact authorises a person to put the lives of 200 passengers in their hands and get no academic degree," Mr Ganzarski said of pilot training courses.

"That is something we need to work on and change."
finance.ninemsn.com.au

2p!ssed2drive

virgin have already got the smarts and are recruiting well in advance... Creating a large hold file.
"up here for thinking"

HF3000

Roei Ganzarski is obviously living in the clouds.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is lauded by Australian business leaders for contracting the airline, passing off lucrative routes and coveted airport slots to competitors, parking aircraft and offloading pilots as quickly as he can.

Ganzarski must be severely misinformed.

4Greens

If Ganzarski cares to check he will find out that UNSW in Sydney offers a degree and pilot training.

Sunfish

For approximately Thirty years, the Japanese Government and industry deliberately overstated their demand forecasts for Iron ore, coal, Oil and other natural resources.

They borrowed from a much earlier retail technique for overstating demand for their suppliers products.

The desired effect was always the same:

1. Encourage new suppliers into the market and a general over investment in production capacity.

2. Drive down raw material prices as the new supply exceeds the actual demand.

3. Profit.


Nothing has changed. Believe in "booming demand for pilots" at your peril.

Tankengine

Can anyone give an example of anyone getting a pilot job because they had a degree?
Getting a jet command after many years in an airline is a higher "qualification" IMO.
Young people are not interested in aviation not because of a lack of degree but because of a lack of good carreer oportunities and conditions in airlines.

chimbu warrior

Is this an attempt to suggest that Jetstar are the "employer of choice"........

bigbrother

Attracting new staff. 12 hour days. multiple nights in motels on a bag drag around .............. Disrupted sleep patterns, disgruntal partners and for pay not much different to a truck driver. Indeed in the mining industry, a lot less. Now, why is it they describe a difficulty in attracting new pilots?

Capt Kremin

The US military require it. It is probably just a way to cull the number of applications though.

ranmar850

Actually, you just described life in mining, unwittingly--12 hour days, away from home for between 8 and 14 nights at a time,ALL the time, disrupted sleep patterns for the majority who work dayshift/nightshift--if you haven't worked in mining, just bear that the hours are somewhat unsociable and long. I fall about laughing when I hear someone saying pilots are being" absolutely flogged " (recent quote from this forum) at 900 hours a year, and yes, I assume that is actual flight time.
Anyway, back on topic. This" looming pilot shortage" has been happening for a long time. It was being heavily touted when I did my PPL training in the early nineties.

And I am sure that job satifaction, all up, must be greater in aviation than being a "dirt taxi "driver.

Anthill

Tankengine_ many overseas airline ask for a Degree when recruiting pilots. For example KAL. Most US airlines as well as the military expect all intake pilots to have a 4 year college Degree, not a Diploma.

A jet command may require years of study, however nobody outside of avaition will regard that as an equivalent qualification. An unemployed jet captain is suitably qualified for sales jobs at Bunnings, driving taxis, stacking shelves at Woolies and as a porter in hotels: just ask anyone fron Ansett, Compass, SAW, Ozjet or Strategic. Luckily, I have a degree and that would qualify me for a management position at Bunnings, Silver Top, Woolies and Hilton

ranmar- 900 hours per year means about 3x that time involved at work as a pilot. Flying is not the whole job! Home study, simulator, SEPs, Flight planning, pre-flight, turn arounds--all the other stuff that doesnt count for flight time but is still 'duty'.

Airbornesoon- headhunters will never be calling pilots for jobs whilst DoJ seniority exists. Why leave a job and go to the bottom of the list? This is why our T&Cs have stagnated over the last decade and a half.

teresa green

No doubt IT and mining cut into it, also the reluctance to chase those hours away from family and friends. Unless you are a cadet, and these days many parents are just keeping their heads above water, without having to get another mortgage for junior. The JQ flight from OOL/NTL is full of young miners, they work in the Hunter Valley five days, then home for three, and chatting to them they reckon they will have their mortgage paid in around three years time. Most are tradies who can no longer get work on the Goldie, and they are loving it, and they tell me they work along side some young professionals like Lawyers, a couple of young doctors, a dentist, and two vets, accountants and the like. Can you blame them?

Wally Mk2

I think part of the problem with regards getting newbies into the flying game is that being a pilot is really just a trade, a skill involving hands & mind. I've always felt that being a pilot is not a profession as such but a trade to be learnt like any other.
You don't even need any formal education mostly to fly a plane.
That along with what a few have said here means it's not an attractive option to youngsters anymore as it's expensive, your always only one medical away from never flying for a living again, it's an unstable industry these days & we pilots are fast becoming just average paid 'tradies' Good job we all love flying right?

I've got two trades behind me,motor mech & pilot, the latter I enjoy far more than a spanner turner!:-)

Wmk2

AirborneSoon

Youngsters are just not interested in the concept of a career anymore, because they know it's a defunct concept. When I left school the mantra was get into uni then get a career. Most people in my generation have now (after racking up large uni fees) been on the sharp-end of a redundancy. All our investment didn't buy us what was promised, stability, recognition and a ladder to climb. You are lucky these days to stay 5yrs with one company, if greener pastures don't call you, a redundancy probably will.

Kids are not stupid. They know that in this kind of environment you skill up fast, get in and get out hopefully with an improvement on your resume you can leverage elsewhere. The really switched on ones don't bother with employment at all. They create a business knowing full well that's where the money is.

Captain Gidday

The bogus trade of 'manager' is actually where the money is! You don't have to be an 'owner of the means of production'. You can just act like you are.

Anthill

Only been retrenched once, Airbornesoon? Of the 7 airlines that I have worked for I have been retrenched from 4. Each time that happens...you go to the bottom of the list when you get a new job! What other industry does this?

Some years ago, I was asked by my daughter's school to give a talk to students regarding careers as a Pilot. When I reviewed what I would say to these high school kids, I thought "why would anyone do this job??'

Despite this. I have become moderately wealthy out of Aviation (mostly because I worked at Ansett for 10+ years when the job paid reasonably well). In 1990, my assets were a Datsun 180B and a really good stereo. The key to this is 1) a good relationship with a thrifty, no BS wife, kids at public schools and 2) I never got sucked into any 'tax minimising' (read: asset minimising) schemes.

In about 7-10 years time I will retire and extend the center digit at all of the w@nkers in the industry (which includes a good many pilots as well as managers) and go sailing and gliding when I want to and enjoy the water views from my top floor balcony in the company of a lovely lady and a crisp Sav Blanc, fLick you very much!

Centaurus

If ever I have seen a loaded question that would be it. Watch out for the shot gun blast if you say yes...

Lookleft

not that it has any relevance to the topic but 10 years with Ansett and it folded in 2001 (effectively), do the maths.

gobbledock

Long live the mighty Datto! The 180B was a classic.
I learned to drive in mums Datsun 120Y. I learned how to do 'roll backs', 'line locks' and handbrake slides. It honed my skills for flying!!

Tankengine

OK, regarding degrees, any jobs in Australia as a pilot requiring an AVIATION degree and paying more than a jet Captain.?