QF Chief Pilot comments on Pilot Shortage
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QF Chief Pilot comments on Pilot Shortage
Found on Dunnanda & Godzone.....
Times are a changing 
Qantas CP unofficial comment on pilot shortage.
Airlines grapple with chronic pilot shortage
3:44p.m. 19 October 2007
A chronic shortage of airline pilots is forcing the aviation industry into a crisis “bigger than the airline strike of 1989 and bigger than the Ansett collapse”.
That is the dire warning Qantas Group flight operations general manager and chief pilot Chris Manning gave to the Regional Aviation Association of Australia Convention at the Hyatt Coolum yesterday.
Qantas has unashamedly “poached” staff from regional airlines as it battles to meet heightened demands because of the low-cost airline boom.
Captain Manning said the crisis was “the worst I’ve seen in my 37 years”.
It was feared the pilot shortage could collapse regional airlines with Regional Express already warning its cancellation rate was “running at four times historical levels”.
REx chief of staff Jim Davis said the situation was only going to get worse, with industry feedback suggesting the “net additional requirement for pilots will be of the order of 1800 over the next two years”.
Fewer than 400 new airline transport pilot licences are issued in Australia every year.
Qantas alone will need to recruit about 300 pilots in the next two years and the other major airlines, Virgin, Jetstar, Cathay Pacific, are in the same boat.
“More than 20% of our pilots have been poached by Virgin, Jetstar and Qantas in the last three months and I am sure the situation is similar or worse in the other regional carriers,” Mr Davis said.
Captain Manning said the industry needed to put pressure on airlines and governments to find a solution.
Airlines grapple with chronic pilot shortage
3:44p.m. 19 October 2007
A chronic shortage of airline pilots is forcing the aviation industry into a crisis “bigger than the airline strike of 1989 and bigger than the Ansett collapse”.
That is the dire warning Qantas Group flight operations general manager and chief pilot Chris Manning gave to the Regional Aviation Association of Australia Convention at the Hyatt Coolum yesterday.
Qantas has unashamedly “poached” staff from regional airlines as it battles to meet heightened demands because of the low-cost airline boom.
Captain Manning said the crisis was “the worst I’ve seen in my 37 years”.
It was feared the pilot shortage could collapse regional airlines with Regional Express already warning its cancellation rate was “running at four times historical levels”.
REx chief of staff Jim Davis said the situation was only going to get worse, with industry feedback suggesting the “net additional requirement for pilots will be of the order of 1800 over the next two years”.
Fewer than 400 new airline transport pilot licences are issued in Australia every year.
Qantas alone will need to recruit about 300 pilots in the next two years and the other major airlines, Virgin, Jetstar, Cathay Pacific, are in the same boat.
“More than 20% of our pilots have been poached by Virgin, Jetstar and Qantas in the last three months and I am sure the situation is similar or worse in the other regional carriers,” Mr Davis said.
Captain Manning said the industry needed to put pressure on airlines and governments to find a solution.
A quote from Flexible Response on the thread with the same title in the D and G forum:
"When I joined CX twenty-something years ago, I had an interview with the Director of Flight Operations. He told me that he just received a call from the Chief of Air Staff of the RAAF. The CAS had complained to the DFO about poaching of "his" pilots. I asked the DFO what reply he gave.
The DFO said, "I said to him that if you paid them what they are worth, then they wouldn't leave!" He then hung up.
...nothing has changed..."
Actually, something has changed. The CX group has to my knowledge lost two pilots who are returning back to the RAF and one to the RAAF!
"When I joined CX twenty-something years ago, I had an interview with the Director of Flight Operations. He told me that he just received a call from the Chief of Air Staff of the RAAF. The CAS had complained to the DFO about poaching of "his" pilots. I asked the DFO what reply he gave.
The DFO said, "I said to him that if you paid them what they are worth, then they wouldn't leave!" He then hung up.
...nothing has changed..."
Actually, something has changed. The CX group has to my knowledge lost two pilots who are returning back to the RAF and one to the RAAF!
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As I said in another thread, my salary tripled when I joined CX from the RAAF. New joiners from the RAAF either take a 50%+ paycut if they join as an SO in HKG, or about a 30% paycut(excluding PF differences) if they join as DEFOs!
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They just don't get it!!!!!
We won't pay you more because we want to look after the share holders!!
So we'll just have to operate this airline without pilots!!
Goodbye Rex, seeya Cathay, you're managment will be the end of both of you.
Without your staff you don't have a business.
Absolute idiotic Asian mentallity at both REX and CX.
We won't pay you more because we want to look after the share holders!!
So we'll just have to operate this airline without pilots!!
Goodbye Rex, seeya Cathay, you're managment will be the end of both of you.
Without your staff you don't have a business.
Absolute idiotic Asian mentallity at both REX and CX.
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Hmmm, seems some of the folks at CX are a tad disappointed at the present pay.
Now, some of these folks may have flown TriStars before, and as a couple of new TriStar operators are emerging, perhaps now is the time to move back into the 'ole Lockheed three-holer.
Peanuts supplied, of course, to throw at the Chairman from time to time...
Now, some of these folks may have flown TriStars before, and as a couple of new TriStar operators are emerging, perhaps now is the time to move back into the 'ole Lockheed three-holer.
Peanuts supplied, of course, to throw at the Chairman from time to time...
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No wonder Qantas can't find pilots.
Sounds like they are scraping the barrel with Chief Pilots as well with comments like this:
Sounds like they are scraping the barrel with Chief Pilots as well with comments like this:
Qantas promises cooperation on pilot drought
Qantas chief pilot Chris Manning has described the imminent pilot
shortage as the biggest catastrophe he has seen in a 37-year career, bigger
than the Ansett collapse, bigger than the pilot strike.
Speaking at last week’s RAAA Convention in Coolum, Manning said that
Qantas needed to induct 68 pilots in 2006 and that it already had 66 on the
books, but because of the growth boom the airline this year needs 178
pilots.
Even though pilots can now work through to 65, in Qantas most of them
are retiring at 60 or 61. The airline has also relied on retiring pilots to become
simulator trainers, but is now finding that they are not interested, if they
want more money they just keep flying.
The crisis is also soaking up GA flight instructors, and Qantas is having to
pay some second officers around $130,000 to go back into GA training to fill
the gap.
Manning also highlighted the difficulties associated with getting a
student pilots licence and suggested that “they should be given away at
fairgrounds and in cornflakes packets, just to get people interested”.
Manning promised Qantas would cooperate with the broader industry,
describing the situation as “so far everyone’s been just managing, but it
hasn’t hit yet. This is very serious. We have issues right across the industry
and we have to let the government know that that’s not acceptable.”Qantas chief pilot Chris Manning has described the imminent pilot
shortage as the biggest catastrophe he has seen in a 37-year career, bigger
than the Ansett collapse, bigger than the pilot strike.
Speaking at last week’s RAAA Convention in Coolum, Manning said that
Qantas needed to induct 68 pilots in 2006 and that it already had 66 on the
books, but because of the growth boom the airline this year needs 178
pilots.
Even though pilots can now work through to 65, in Qantas most of them
are retiring at 60 or 61. The airline has also relied on retiring pilots to become
simulator trainers, but is now finding that they are not interested, if they
want more money they just keep flying.
The crisis is also soaking up GA flight instructors, and Qantas is having to
pay some second officers around $130,000 to go back into GA training to fill
the gap.
Manning also highlighted the difficulties associated with getting a
student pilots licence and suggested that “they should be given away at
fairgrounds and in cornflakes packets, just to get people interested”.
Manning promised Qantas would cooperate with the broader industry,
describing the situation as “so far everyone’s been just managing, but it
hasn’t hit yet. This is very serious. We have issues right across the industry
ps
FOG&
FOC
Last edited by blow.n.gasket; 25th Oct 2007 at 23:54.
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Always Somebody Else's Fault
“so far everyone’s been just managing, but it hasn’t hit yet. This is very serious. We have issues right across the industryand we have to let the government know that that’s not acceptable.”
So this is something that the Government needs to fix?
As if Airlines have no control over this?
Nothing to do with airline management devaluing the job to the extent that it is unattractive. Hard to imagine young people no longer looking up at the sky and being inspired to the job. But it would seem that airline management have achieved this.
“so far everyone’s been just managing, ”
llcks. They haven't been managing for the last 20 years.Milly
