Soooo .... you learned all about the U.S. airline industry in the last 20 years from reading Sully’s book ? That should wrap it up for you then eh ? I’ve been in it for the last 20 years, and you’ve missed the point. Just because you can’t understand it, doesn’t mean it’s not there. You either don’t understand the word ‘decade’, or you need to hit your book again. Delta has been hiring for over a decade. And they were all back (obviously) before that.

There’s so many inaccuracies in your post that it would take me an hour. I don’t think you have anything to learn - So I’ll stop wrestling with the proverbial pig.

​​​​​ANNABEL HEPWORTH
The Australian 12:00AM June 1, 2018

A high-powered advisory group to the Turnbull government is advancing plans to ensure there are enough pilots and aviation engineers “to keep Australians flying”.

The Australian can reveal Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has been given a plan that outlines three priorities for the troubled general aviation sector, which has been complaining of crippling costs and red tape.

The plan was produced by the government’s General Aviation Advisory Group, chaired by Royal Flying Doctor Service chief executive Martin Laverty, and outlines a work plan for the group.

Mr Laverty said the plan “addresses critical issues of regulatory burden and ensuring sufficient workforce to keep Australians flying”.

Amid a pilot shortage that is a global phenomenon, the document identifies “workforce development” for the general aviation industry as a priority.

It also says a priority should be ensuring air safety regulation supports the general aviation sector through “clear, consistently applied and proportionally responsive administration”.

The other priority is for a long-term “strategic perspective” for general aviation, which provides links to areas not serviced by airlines but has been shrinking since 2010.

Writing in The Australian today, Mr Laverty says even the RFDS has struggled with the issue of pilot and engineer shortages.

“A solution is best advanced from within industry itself by encouraging young people into the profession,” Mr Laverty writes.

“Expanded industry training capacity will fulfil national needs and create export opportunities.”

Mr McCormack, who is also Infrastructure and Transport Minister, said he welcomed the “General Aviation Flight Plan” and had asked the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to work with the group in responding to the three priorities.

Mr McCormack also said the advisory group would be continued a further two years to allow work outlined in the plan to be finished. Overseas airlines have poached major airline pilots and while Australia’s airlines had sourced pilots from general aviation, the sector has been shrinking. The situation has prompted the government to allow foreign pilots into Australia on two-year work visas to keep regional air routes operating, while Qantas’s regional arm, QantasLink, wants the government to extend the time foreign pilots can stay.

The group’s high-level strategy document says there are pressures on the sector, “such as an ageing workforce and commercial airline competition for personnel”.

The group will work with an existing panel, led by Australian Aviation Associations Forum chair and former Airservices boss Greg Russell, that is reviewing aviation skills and training.

The review is expected to be completed in the middle of the year.

The panel is aiming to make recommendations on supporting the training and retention of aviators and backing Australia as an exporter of aviation training and skills.

The “flight plan” document also says CASA should be given “guiding principles” for future administration of regulation as it applies to general aviation and suggestions to ensure rules are applied consistently.

Here we go yet again:rolleyes: I'm starting to wonder if all these so-call free-market capitalist politicians and business owners are actually closet members of the communist party.

Very simply people are going to foreign airlines because they are getting paid 2-3 times as much as they are in Australia. The very same reasons that the same people bragged about how cheap pilot labour was in the past is now working in reverse. Noone is being poached. It is how the system works.

And it is very possible that the current economics of aviation in this country is actually broken and that people are not paying enough to travel.

That is one of two solutions. Increase the pay to reflect the lost regional lifestyle (home every night, limited time on standby, shorter days, good interline staff travel) ....

OR

keep the pay as it is and return the regional lifestyle.

Hahaha the same name as who? Skywest in Australia is l o n g gone, Aviation and Airlines.

I take no joy in that either, it seems Australia always reverts back to two airlines, albeit with two low cost subsidiaries.

Sui Generis?

Probably organising some sort of war so the RAAF has to ramp up pilot and engineer training. Governments are good at that stuff..not much else

If a shortage arrives, squeeze the nasty HR types so hard you can see their balls dangling from the bottom of their trousers (and the female equivalent). You make the conditions to tough ticket prices have to increase - permanently.

Best of luck.

PM

Ha ha I’m with Piltdown on this.
If the industry can get through this without ticket prices going up a dollar here and there then market forces haven’t really acted.They have been circumvented somehow ( 457 visas and IR tactics, negotiations not taking advantage of the market etc) , I doubt that will happen, we’ll probably see a ‘pilot levy’ on tickets lol. Management would love it, they’d be able to have scores of conversations both in private and in the media about greedy pilots forcing the good people of Australia to pay more for their travel.

If there is not enough pilots and airlines have to pay more to entice kids to become pilots that’s market forces not pilot greed .

Correct....

So the Qantas CEO makes 30 million dollars and is the highest paid CEO in the Country. It’s been in the news.
David Andrew gets over 8 million. Yet we are making up total BS with pilot levies on tickets? Any other self imposed scare tactics?
Just about every news article reports a pilot shortage with credible facts and figures including large salaries in China. Well in excess of what an A380/330/747/737 pilot in QF earns. The problem is getting worse. Not even seen the start of the retirement wave yet.
You even have Alan Joyce and the QF Chief Pilot admitting to a shortage issues in news articles. Every day another article on pilot Shortages with the data on pay and statistics and numbers.
Others provide accurate figures of US airline pay which should also mention the cheaper cost of living and lower taxes in the USA.
In any other profession you’d be seeing significant wage rises OR if not pay rises, improvements such as rostering or earnings stability in SH.
Sadly poor representation and a majority of weak minded and punch drunk members will ensure that pilots lose in both in good times and bad. Pilots are very good at flying aeroplanes and that’s it.
It doesn’t really matter if there is a massive Shortage or a small one or none at all.
The Qantas EA negotiators backed by IR and exec are vastly smarter, more strategic and know the multitude of weak spots. Wish it were otherwise.Look at the latest Comfort letter fiasco. After trading off a multitude of conditions to get 787s, AIPA got double bluffed again. What’s the trade off for the next tranche of replacement aircraft?
Perplexed as to how some here(apart from the obvious QF management/IR trolls) could lead a race to the bottom at such a time. In any environment terms and conditions continue to get worse or at best stall. Perhaps the grossly high executive pay is in fact warranted? Perhaps they are worried about an executive bonus levy on tickets? I suspect not.
Best of luck in EA negotiations. The last win the pilots had was not thanks to AIPA or it’s pilots but Fair Work.

:D:D:D :ok::ok::ok: