Airlines grapple with chronic pilot shortage
3:44p.m. 19 October 2007
A chronic shortage of airline pilots is forcing the aviation industry into a crisis “bigger than the airline strike of 1989 and bigger than the Ansett collapse”.
That is the dire warning Qantas Group flight operations general manager and chief pilot Chris Manning gave to the Regional Aviation Association of Australia Convention at the Hyatt Coolum yesterday.
Qantas has unashamedly “poached” staff from regional airlines as it battles to meet heightened demands because of the low-cost airline boom.
Captain Manning said the crisis was “the worst I’ve seen in my 37 years”.
It was feared the pilot shortage could collapse regional airlines with Regional Express already warning its cancellation rate was “running at four times historical levels”.
REx chief of staff Jim Davis said the situation was only going to get worse, with industry feedback suggesting the “net additional requirement for pilots will be of the order of 1800 over the next two years”.
Fewer than 400 new airline transport pilot licences are issued in Australia every year.
Qantas alone will need to recruit about 300 pilots in the next two years and the other major airlines, Virgin, Jetstar, Cathay Pacific, are in the same boat.
“More than 20% of our pilots have been poached by Virgin, Jetstar and Qantas in the last three months and I am sure the situation is similar or worse in the other regional carriers,” Mr Davis said.
Captain Manning said the industry needed to put pressure on airlines and governments to find a solution.
