Remember these guys aren't doing roadshows because theyd like to do everyone in GA a massive favour and save you the commute, but because crew are going elsewhere or waiting for something better.
There was a time when they'd charge you a couple hundred $$$ just to sit the psych testing. It's nice to see the tables favouring the pilots for once.
They certainly aren't doing it because they respect the profession of the contribution. They struggle to attract applicants. The easy picking GA fruit tree in Australia sustained major and regional airlines for decades. Now a
combination of adversarial IR and demographics means that tree is dying.
- Gaining qualifications is extremely expensive
- Time taken to gain requisite qualifications (ATPL etc)
- Other more viable alternatives
- Adversarial employee relations
Means people choose other occupations.As is the case in Europe and the USA regional airlines (which feed the majors) are really struggling. The major airlines slotted to retire big chunks of flight crew by 2020, highlights how acute the problem is.
Who can afford to live in a major city when remuneration levels for First Officers are so low? As is the case in Europe and USA, expensive cities are suffering the most, those applicants signing up want cheaper cities in which to live.
One wonders whether Qlink will get enough pilots for Sydney? As they are amusingly finding out with the turboprop operation flying JQ in NZ, they cannot find pilots, as evidenced by large numbers of flights continued to be crewed by Australians on secondment, at huge cost..
