Do the airlines have that kind of money to throw around?
Well they are going to have to find it or cease operating!
Experienced Pilots now are becoming a finite resource and the newbies just aren’t signing up in enough numbers. If you don’t believe me then have a read
here.
The International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations, which represents pilots' labour unions, has calculated that, simply on the basis of the aircraft industry's order backlog, there is a need for a net increase of between 55,000 and 75,000 new pilots globally.
Not that many of us to go around unfortunately (or fortunately for us).
That is the makings of a tight labour market if I ever saw one. There are a few essential ingredients that make up an airline, or the industry as a whole – Aircraft, Fuel, Pilots, Engineers and ATCs. You can’t run an airline without any of them full stop. That also goes for cabin crew, ops staff, reservations, management etc, but here is the kicker. Pilots, Engineers and ATCs all take time to train. Not months but years. All the other staff can be replaced or added within weeks or less.
What this means is that ‘He who has the staff, wins’. If there isn’t enough Pilots to go around then it becomes a bidding war with what’s left.
Just the appearance of Australian and Indian recruiters in South Africa has already driven up market wages there too. So much for finding "cheap" foreign crew.
There you go. This is a global shortage, so work visas will only stop gap measure at best.
Market forces don’t care if Pilot wages are fair or not. They just influence what they will be; and in the near future they will be high. It’s a great time to be a Pilot.