wannabepilot1531
27th Aug 2007, 21:08
Air Canada Jazz to hire pilots from school
Tom Blackwell, National Post
Published: Sunday, August 26, 2007
Faced with a growing pilot shortage, Air Canada Jazz has launched an experimental program to hire several cockpit crew every year straight from flight school, ushering in pilots with hundreds of hours' less experience than those traditionally recruited by the airline.
The program has left some current Jazz pilots "in an uproar," but the airline insists it can incorporate the less-seasoned aviators without compromising safety.
Experts say other Canadian airlines may have to resort to similar recruiting tactics as the booming air industries in Asia and Europe lure more and more experienced crew away from North America.
Mike Daugherty, 20, admitted he was "shocked" when the company made him a tentative job offer just after graduating this spring from Sault College's aviation program. He starts in September and could be co-piloting a Dash-8 or Bombardier Regional Jet by January.
Such graduates typically have about 250 hours flight time, as much as 50 hours of that on a simulator. A regular job posting that Jazz currently has on the Internet demands a minimum of 1,500 hours.
"There are individuals that might look at this as a negative thing, as a setback, just because we have lack of flight experience, which I totally understand," Mr. Daugherty said.
"That was my big question when this program first started: There's a whole bunch of us going in there with very minimal flight time. Is that going to pose a big problem? But we kind of make up for lack of experience with personal skills, management skills, and we're pretty adaptable."
The airline is still hiring more experienced pilots as well, but is testing out its new "partnership" with several community-college flying programs to try to avert any problems down the road, said Manon Stuart, a Jazz spokeswoman. The eight college graduates, picked for being the top students at their schools, will get months of training at the airline before starting work as first officers, or co-pilots, on actual passenger-carrying flights, and will only do that if they are deemed fully qualified, she said.
Brian Shury, a Jazz captain and a spokesman for the pilots' union, the Air Line Pilots Association, said he believes the program can be implemented safely, if proper steps are followed. Nonetheless, a risk assessment is being conducted to be certain, he said.
Not everyone at the company is happy about it, though.
"The line pilots at Jazz are in an uproar, even to the point of having unofficial petitions posted on pilot bulletin boards," said an employee who did not want to be identified. "Not only does the average pilot think that this hiring scheme is ludicrous, many line captains feel they are ill-prepared and ill-trained to monitor and manage ... these inexperienced co-pilots."
Ms. Stuart pointed to estimates that 17,000 extra pilots will be needed annually over the next 20 years just to accommodate the new aircraft that companies have ordered. "The pool is depleting and is depleting rapidly."
Pilots for North American airlines that have frozen or cut back salaries to recover from post-9/11 financial woes are increasingly being poached by booming, and better-paying, companies in China, Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East, said Capt. Shury. Popular discount carriers in Europe are also snapping up staff.
"The pilot shortage is going to be incredible," said Dan Mahoney, a former U.S. Airways pilot and aviation safety consultant. "Everyone is flying, they've got hundreds of aircraft on order and they need pilots ... As much as we have concerns [about hiring inexperienced pilots], there are no options for the airlines any more."
Some European carriers, including Lufthansa, have already started recruiting inexperienced flight-school graduates, said Mr. Mahoney.
The lack of experience can be mitigated to a certain extent with extra training, and training for the captains on how to teach novice crew members, he said.
There really is no replacement, though, for experience, said Capt. Shury. A pilot with a few thousand hours "has time to mature," would likely have handled one or more emergencies and experienced a variety of bad weather, he said. Still, European airlines such as Austria's Tyrolean have instituted programs like Jazz's with apparent success, he said.
"We're certainly not going to sit back ... if we believe the program is not completely safe," added Capt. Shury.
Mr. Daugherty got his private licence as a teenager and studied at Sault College for three years after high school. The Ottawa native figured he would get a job doing fire patrols in Northern Ontario, then progress to air ambulances before winning his dream airline job. Training at the college was on a Czech single-engine plane called a Zlin 242-L and the twin-engine Piper Seminole.
He acknowledged that Jazz's 37-seat Dash-8 and the 50-seat Regional Jet are quite different vehicles.
Each one is "a bigger aircraft, flies a little faster and carries a few more people," he said. "I almost want to say it's like night and day, but there are some similarities."
Tom Blackwell, National Post
Published: Sunday, August 26, 2007
Faced with a growing pilot shortage, Air Canada Jazz has launched an experimental program to hire several cockpit crew every year straight from flight school, ushering in pilots with hundreds of hours' less experience than those traditionally recruited by the airline.
The program has left some current Jazz pilots "in an uproar," but the airline insists it can incorporate the less-seasoned aviators without compromising safety.
Experts say other Canadian airlines may have to resort to similar recruiting tactics as the booming air industries in Asia and Europe lure more and more experienced crew away from North America.
Mike Daugherty, 20, admitted he was "shocked" when the company made him a tentative job offer just after graduating this spring from Sault College's aviation program. He starts in September and could be co-piloting a Dash-8 or Bombardier Regional Jet by January.
Such graduates typically have about 250 hours flight time, as much as 50 hours of that on a simulator. A regular job posting that Jazz currently has on the Internet demands a minimum of 1,500 hours.
"There are individuals that might look at this as a negative thing, as a setback, just because we have lack of flight experience, which I totally understand," Mr. Daugherty said.
"That was my big question when this program first started: There's a whole bunch of us going in there with very minimal flight time. Is that going to pose a big problem? But we kind of make up for lack of experience with personal skills, management skills, and we're pretty adaptable."
The airline is still hiring more experienced pilots as well, but is testing out its new "partnership" with several community-college flying programs to try to avert any problems down the road, said Manon Stuart, a Jazz spokeswoman. The eight college graduates, picked for being the top students at their schools, will get months of training at the airline before starting work as first officers, or co-pilots, on actual passenger-carrying flights, and will only do that if they are deemed fully qualified, she said.
Brian Shury, a Jazz captain and a spokesman for the pilots' union, the Air Line Pilots Association, said he believes the program can be implemented safely, if proper steps are followed. Nonetheless, a risk assessment is being conducted to be certain, he said.
Not everyone at the company is happy about it, though.
"The line pilots at Jazz are in an uproar, even to the point of having unofficial petitions posted on pilot bulletin boards," said an employee who did not want to be identified. "Not only does the average pilot think that this hiring scheme is ludicrous, many line captains feel they are ill-prepared and ill-trained to monitor and manage ... these inexperienced co-pilots."
Ms. Stuart pointed to estimates that 17,000 extra pilots will be needed annually over the next 20 years just to accommodate the new aircraft that companies have ordered. "The pool is depleting and is depleting rapidly."
Pilots for North American airlines that have frozen or cut back salaries to recover from post-9/11 financial woes are increasingly being poached by booming, and better-paying, companies in China, Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East, said Capt. Shury. Popular discount carriers in Europe are also snapping up staff.
"The pilot shortage is going to be incredible," said Dan Mahoney, a former U.S. Airways pilot and aviation safety consultant. "Everyone is flying, they've got hundreds of aircraft on order and they need pilots ... As much as we have concerns [about hiring inexperienced pilots], there are no options for the airlines any more."
Some European carriers, including Lufthansa, have already started recruiting inexperienced flight-school graduates, said Mr. Mahoney.
The lack of experience can be mitigated to a certain extent with extra training, and training for the captains on how to teach novice crew members, he said.
There really is no replacement, though, for experience, said Capt. Shury. A pilot with a few thousand hours "has time to mature," would likely have handled one or more emergencies and experienced a variety of bad weather, he said. Still, European airlines such as Austria's Tyrolean have instituted programs like Jazz's with apparent success, he said.
"We're certainly not going to sit back ... if we believe the program is not completely safe," added Capt. Shury.
Mr. Daugherty got his private licence as a teenager and studied at Sault College for three years after high school. The Ottawa native figured he would get a job doing fire patrols in Northern Ontario, then progress to air ambulances before winning his dream airline job. Training at the college was on a Czech single-engine plane called a Zlin 242-L and the twin-engine Piper Seminole.
He acknowledged that Jazz's 37-seat Dash-8 and the 50-seat Regional Jet are quite different vehicles.
Each one is "a bigger aircraft, flies a little faster and carries a few more people," he said. "I almost want to say it's like night and day, but there are some similarities."