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Aviation : A mismatch made in the heavens
Nicholas RAINER
10/29/10

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The flag carrier’s financial troubles are well-documented. Yet the company faces another lesser-known problem: the deterioration of relations between management and the in-flight crew.

In a rant that has since become infamous, the new Chief Executive Offi cer of Air Mauritius, Raj Bungsraz recently complained, in an email, about his company car’s threadbare tires. Given the size of some of the challenges facing the national aviation company, this complaint seemed a little incongruous. Yet, over and above its perennial troubles with fuel hedging and trade unions it perceives to be meddlesome, there is also a growing sense of discontentment amongst the airline’s 150 or so pilots, a state of affairs that has contributed to several departures in the past few weeks. Some fear that the disgruntlement of the in-flight crew, combined with a lack of planning, could hinder the company’s ability to get all its flights off the ground during the coming peak season.

It’s a measure of the paranoia pervading Air Mauritius that not a single person we interviewed – and we spoke to people at all levels - was willing to speak on the record, mainly out of fear of reprisals. Yet, the pattern that emerged from these conversations is clear: the rift between the company’s pilots and management has become perilously wide. Amongst the sources of tension cited are: wage cuts, shambolic planning and the shabby way in which many pilots feel they are being treated. Could this have an adverse effect on the flag carrier’s operations in the coming months?

“The company is managed on a day-to-day basis. I don’t know how it’s going to get by in December,” says a pilot. Every year, Air Mauritius provides additional flights during the high season in order to meet the increase in demand. In order to offer more flights, the national aviation company usually has recourse to pilot providers such as Scandinavian Airlines and Virgin Atlantic for “in-flight relief”.

The headache this year is that the recent spate of departures could result in a pilot shortage. “A significant number of expat pilots are leaving the company and many more will leave in the coming months due to wage cuts. If this trend persists, it will be no surprise if MK has to suspend flights during the high season,” notes an industry follower.

In addition, several members of the in-flight crew, copilots in particular, have already reached their annual 900-hour flight time limit, so it follows that they’ll have to sit out the busy end-of-year period. At best, this means that the flag carrier will have to employ even more in-flight relief than usual, at worst that flights will have to be suspended.

Female foreign pilots

“In-flight relief is not a long-term solution,” warns the pilot. “The global situation has changed and it’s becoming harder to get short-term pilots at the of a hat. Everything depends on their willingness to pay people adequately,” affirms an expat pilot after he’d overcome his initial reluctance to talk to the press. Another expat pilot is far less pessimistic, “Air Mauritius is like a cat it always falls back on its feet. I don’t think the situation’s as bad as some people are making it out to be. Sure, there’s some tension at the planning level but they’re part of the ups and downs. Air Mauritius has always been pretty resourceful,” he remarks.

For his part, the Executive Vice President of Air Mauritius, Donald Payen is confident that this year will be no different from any other. “The number of pilots needed for our operations varies depending on the seasons. Every year, our needs are greater during the peak season and every year we act accordingly,” he asserts. One of the actions taken has been to recruit 10 female pilots from Spain and South America.

Critics feel that MK is wrong to eschew homegrown talent in favour of more expensive fickle foreigners. “The worldwide airline industry is expanding and will need thousands of pilots in the coming decade. This will cause an unprecedented global shortage. Most respectable airlines in Europe and Asia have realized that it is much more sensible to train local pilots through internships and supervised programmes than to bet on foreigners who will eventually leave the company.
Yet, over eight months have passed since the beginning of the screening process at Air Mauritius and it’s still not been completed. Around 20 Mauritian pilots are still in the dark about their futures.

The ‘Mauritianisation’ of the company’s in-flight crew is simply not happening”, the industry follower notes. But a source within a company defends MK’s employment policy (opinions differ on the ratio of Mauritian to expat pilots: some say it’s 40:60, others 50:50). “It’s not reasonable to expect us to employ only Mauritian pilots. Expat pilots have advantages in that they’re already trained and it’s easier to say ‘goodbye’ to them.”

Another issue that is regularly evoked is the lack of planning, especially at the flight operations level (at the time this article was written, for example, the flight roster for November hadn’t been circulated yet). A result of this paucity of foresight is that pilots’ holidays are routinely cancelled to plug the operational gaps. What is more, a number of pilots are already flying 100 hours per month. “There are some tired pilots in the aircraft,” the first pilot we interviewed warns. Over and above the physical demands of such long hours, this also means that quite a sizeable amount of the company’s cash is being spent on overtime every month (anything above 81 hours counts as overtime). “This wouldn’t happen if there was planning,” he adds.

New company watchword

Our company source is also of the opinion that the tension crackling between the in-flight crew and management is par for the course. “In most airlines, the relationship between pilots and management is a difficult one. Some manage better than others. Still, this doesn’t mean that Air Mauritius can’t do a lot better in managing it. As always, uncertainty makes things worse, so the recent changes in management haven’t helped.”

Unsurprisingly, the line coming from the Paille en Queue Court is that the wellbeing of the company’s pilots is of the utmost importance and that appropriate channels of communication have been established. “Pilots are at the very core of operations. As a result, the management of Air Mauritius and, in particular, the director of operations, regularly meet the representatives of the pilots in order to anticipate and identify problems and to find the right solutions through dialogue,” vouches Donald Payen.

The outcry coming from the pilots’ camp belies this rosy scenario, though. “One thing’s for sure, many people have lost all their illusions about the company and are looking elsewhere,” says the first expat pilot we spoke to. Although political interference has long been an obstacle to the efficient running of the national carrier, the situation was made worse by the hedging debacle. Cost-cutting became the new company watchword overnight. Accordingly, management tried to get rid of some of the more experienced in-flight crew members in a bid to bring in cheaper replacements.

The air is thick with suspicion

Given the financial dire straits the company was in, this stratagem might seem justified. The only problem is that this gambit backfired: the company was mostly unable to replace the people they had sent on their way and had to call them back shortly afterwards. Making people feel unwanted is hardly a recipe for high job satisfaction. And neither is the fact that employment contracts vary greatly from pilot to pilot.

As a result, the air at ground level is rather thick with suspicion. Take the example of certain expat pilots. At the end of their three-year contracts, they are entitled to a very lucrative gratuity. Because of the prevailing unpleasantness, several of them have preferred to pocket their bonuses before informing the company that they were leaving rather than viceversa.

Obviously, this also has a knock-on effect on planning. Can anything be done to patch up the damage? “For one thing, they have to start treating people better,” states a pilot. Before that can happen though, the flag carrier first needs to recognize that a problem exists. If Raj Bungsraz’s first round of emails
are anything to go by, this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Indeed, the only time he mentions pilots is in the following sentence: “As any of our pilots can tell you, the captain goes down with the ship and the boss is the last to leave the ship.” That hardly bodes well for the future.

Nicholas RAINER

And the shortcut to the original:
Aviation : A mismatch made in the heavens

I don't think we have to wait long... By December... :mad: