Pilot Shortage in news again
Pilot shortage leaves ski town without wings (News.com)
By Chris Pritchard April 21, 2008 12:00am
YOUR flight's been canceled? You're not alone – and the situation could be worse.
For instance, there'll be something missing from Australia's highest-altitude airport at the Victorian ski resort of Mount Hotham during this year's season: the destination's entire scheduled air service has been scrapped.
Trying to cobble together alternatives, tourism officials suggest skiers fly instead to Albury and use road transfers from there.
"Or you could charter a light aircraft to get here," suggests a helpful information aide.
Mount Hotham is Australia's highest-profile victim of cuts to regional air services.
But, elsewhere across the country, the impact is also prompting muttered curses.
A few destinations have lost all services while others make do with fewer flights.
In places where timetables remain largely intact, a rising number of individual flights get the chop. What's more, planned expansion to new airports is on hold.
Regional centres bear the brunt of cutbacks but occasional flights are also cancelled on inter-city trunk routes.
The culprit this time isn't high fuel prices. It's a shortage of pilots - and experts maintain there's no solution on the horizon.
"We've been warning about this for a long time," says Colin Rodgers, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Australia. "But our predictions have fallen on deaf ears. As a country we've dropped the ball."
A prime cause of the aviation staffing pickle, says veteran airman Rodgers, is the cost of training.
"It's too high - it costs a young person around $100,000 to train to be a pilot.
"After they're trained on a small aircraft, if they want a career in the industry they begin with a small airline flying light aircraft in remote areas. They build up their hours and move on to one of the major regional airlines serving big towns.
"Next stop," says Rodgers, "is flying jets for one of the big national carriers. Some pilots make a very good career of this - while others move on to international flying for Australian or foreign airlines.
"There are many Australian pilots all over the world. Cathay Pacific and Emirates are just two foreign carriers with large numbers of Aussies working for them."
It's Rodgers' belief that pilot training has been a low priority for successive governments.
"If the politicians thought of it at all they believed any problems would sort themselves out. Well, they haven't.
"Politicians and bureaucrats certainly didn't foresee the predicament we're in today - with cancelled flights all over the place."
He urges more training facilities and greater financial help for would-be pilots.
"These measures should be put in place right away," he says. "But even if a greater emphasis is placed on training immediately, the situation won't change overnight. After all, it takes time to train pilots."
Rodgers' exasperation is shared by Derek Sadubin, chief operating officer of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
"There's no quick fix," he notes. "We've talked about this for ages. Some helpful measures have been taken such as raising retirement ages to 65.
"But, overall, what's needed is greatly expanded training of young pilots.
"Meantime, we can expect more spikes in the incidence of cancellations - particularly on marginal routes when carriers decide they're unable to crew these flights.
"Complaints about airlines poaching pilots from other airlines are likely to increase."
Just how bad is the situation? Regional Express (Rex) estimates Australia will need an additional 1800 pilots over the next two years but will train well under half that number.
Rex, like all big operators in Australia (including QantasLink), has cancelled some flights.
As jobs open up at large airlines, small airlines often find it very difficult to recruit and keep pilots. (But the drift to big airlines isn't strong enough to end pilot shortages there.)
Little airlines in remote areas are hardest hit. Analysts expect some to go to the wall over the next 12 months.
Overseas, four United States airlines closed in recent weeks. Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, a long-haul budget carrier serving London and Vancouver, also stopped flying.
In all cases, rising fuel prices were blamed - but industry sources say difficulty obtaining pilots in an employees' market was also a factor.
In nations such as India, the Philippines and South Africa, an exodus of sorely-needed pilots wanting fatter pay-packets is blamed on poaching by other countries' airlines.
In Manila, the Philippines capital, the lament is often heard that the country spends considerable sums training pilots - who then leave in droves.
South African pilots, like Australians, often head to well-paying Middle Eastern airlines.
South African aviation websites feature success stories of pilots who have migrated to Australia. Jetstar and V Australia (Virgin Blue's not-yet-flying international offshoot) have recruited pilots from South Africa, say these websites.
An industry think-tank estimates Asia - where start-up low-cost carriers are fuelling rapid growth - will have a shortfall of 10,000 pilots by 2010.
The booming aviation industries of China and India, in particular, are desperately short of pilots.
China trains about 600 pilots annually but needs more than twice that many to keep up with demand, according to an analysis by the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
India requires 450 pilots immediately and will need 4500 more over the next five years, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
Even if extra pilots became available today - and this won't happen - there wouldn't be enough to soak up the shortfall, either in Australia or overseas.
"It's an inconvenient situation that's going to be with us for a while," observes the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation's Sadubin.