Unbelievable! At the tender age of 23 years, an ATPL and a Baron endorsement, aircraft claims to have solved the very problems I struggled with for three decades in airline executive management - problems I still do not have the answers to!
Jarse and Dick are close to the mark. Australia is at a time of record low unemployment and the pilot shortage is an industry problem; no carrier is immune.
I manage a corporation with 500 employees, predominantly in rural and regional Australia where unemployment in some towns is < 1%. As a package deal, staff terms and conditions have been progressively improved in order to compete with other regional labour demands. Despite an average 30% increase in administration staff wages, employer funded staff development training, more flexible employment and a further $1 mill investment in staff living accommodation in the bush, our administration staff attrition rate was over 30% in the past year.
99% of staff voluntarily signed AWAs in the past year, those AWAs providing income, terms and conditions in aggregate up to 50% better than the previous outdated Award system.
Australia has a deficit of workers to meet the demands of an increasingly affluent and aging society. Similarly, the airline industry has insufficient qualified and experienced technical staff to meet the ever increasing demands for air travel.
REX (or any other airline) could improve it's terms, conditions and remuneration to solve it's own problem, but it would be at the expense of another industry sector. And in the case of REX (and all regional airlines), individual desire for personal development will always see staff moving up to larger, more sophisticated airline aircraft types.
Improved terms, conditions and remuneration is a part of the solution. Whilst some erroneously blame government for recent interest rate increases, the reason is inflation, fueled in part by significant increases in wages. Expect further wages increases, a result of the increasing demand for labour, resulting in further inflation and interest rate increases.
Unlike aircraft's simplistic and illogical solutions, I recognise the problems but don't have the answers!
Last edited by Torres; 17th Nov 2007 at 20:50.