The
regional airline is without a doubt a very crucial part of the overall airline
industry. Air carriers are able feed more passengers through their routes
through the use of regional carriers and create a place for new, low-time,
pilots to begin their careers. The current "buzz" in the industry is
the pilot shortage that US regional carriers are faced with. However, the regional
air carriers are not the only ones facing a pilot shortage. According to a
report compiled by aviation consultant Kit Darby, "More than 30,000 pilots
- or half the current total of 60,222 at 10 large U.S. airlines, United Parcel
Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. - will reach age 65 by 2026" (Schlangenstein
& Sasso, 2016, para. 13).
With
the high number of retiring pilots at the major airlines, those large carriers
are looking to the regional air carriers for qualified pilots to fill their
positions. As we see a movement of pilots from the regional airlines to the
majors, we then come to the problem of hiring regional airline pilots to fill
the gaps that were made by the previous regional airline pilots that left to
fly for the majors.
While
I do believe that the required retirement age is the one of the more prominent reasons
for the pilot shortage in the industry, I also believe that there are a few
more important contributing factors that have led to our pilot shortage. Robert
Silk reported that the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) "blames the
airlines for low entry-level pay" (2016, para. 19). For pilots to earn
wages of less than $26,000 per year, it certainly makes sense as to why we
might see potential new pilots turn away from making a career out of the
airlines.
On
top of the low pay, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires pilots
to acquire 1,500 flight hours before they may hold an Airline Transport Pilot
certificate and fly passengers for the airlines. Therefore, pilot are expected
to earn these hours in a given amount of time, either on their own or through a
university-ran program, and then go on to making what most consider a very low
wage for a very high performance job. ALPA representatives stress that
"the economics of it don't work. Aspiring pilots often spend $150,000 to
$200,000 on training and flight hours..." all for a wage that can easily
be made with much less education (2016, para. 18).
ALPA
aren't the only ones speaking up on the pilot shortage issue. Organizations
such as the Regional Airlines Association (RAA), the American Association of
Airport Executives (AAAE) - an airport management organization - and even
companies such as Great Lake Airlines have stated that the low pay and the
1,500-hour rule has "created an industry wide shortage of qualified
pilots, negatively affecting our level of operating and financial performance"
(Silk, 2016, para. 9). After researching the factors of the pilot shortage, I
still fully believe that it is not just one rulemaking or mandate that brought
about a pilot shortage, but rather several events that have brought us to today's
shortage in qualified pilots.
As
a part of the pilot shortage, we watched a documentary that highlights some of
the hardships regional airline pilots faced such as low pay, difficult hours,
and a "lack in qualifications".
One
of the featured topics of the film was professionalism in the workplace. I
define professionalism as performing your duties or other activities that are
asked of you in a respectful and ethical manner. In the documentary we saw a
lack in professionalism from both the pilots and managers on the regional
airline level. Pay based on completion of a flight was one concern for the
pilots as it could lead to a lack of professionalism in the decisions made by
the pilots who would not receive pay for cancelling a flight due to hazardous
weather, illness, etc. It is probable that pilots would lose sight of their
responsible decisions that must be made when their pay is threatened due to
canceled flights. This structure of compensation is a clear contributing factor
of the lack of professionalism that was demonstrated in the documentary.
The
documentary also brought up a lack in professionalism on the management side of
a regional airline operation. Colgan Air was experiencing extreme growth in its
operations and did a poor job in managing its growth with the little recourses
it had. Additionally, the airline did not enforce any specific commuting or
duty-time restrictions for its pilots and continued to accept low time,
inexperienced, pilots into their already small and overwhelmed operations. The
relations made between Colgan's CEO and the FAA also had some feelings of
unprofessionalism as the CEO was quoted as being "a friend of the
office" by the FAA's office manager.
As
a line pilot for any regional airline, I think it's important to put safety of
the crew and the passengers above all else, no matter the consequences. Furthermore,
I plan on finding a mentor of sorts once I have begun to establish myself in
the airline industry. Having someone who has excellent experience in the
industry, who can provide invaluable information and share his/her experiences
with me would certainly help in maintaining professionalism within the industry.
References
Silk, Robert. (2016, Jan. 19) . Training rule blamed
for pilot shortage. Travel Weekly.
Retrieved from http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/Training-rule-blamed- for-pilot-deficit
Schlangenstein, M., & Sasso, M. (2016) . Even as
pilot pay increases, U.S. airlines fear pilot shortage.
Skift. Retrieved from https://skift.com/2016/06/30/even-as-pilot-pay-increases- u-s-airlines-fear-pilot-shortage/
I feel the biggest reason for the pilot shortage isn't the mandatory retirement age, but instead the low pay at the beginning jobs in the industry. Most people are retiring from slower pace jobs in their mid 60's already, so I feel even if this didn't exist, you would still see many people retiring at this age. The pay is a large turn off for most college students, especially since the debt acquired from a flight major is generally more than that of another degree at the same college.
ReplyDeleteI feel if the regionals started to pay more to be competitive with a job right out of college (most engineers make at least twice as much as the average regional pilot). This alone makes the field very unattractive for college aged students since the reason for most of them to go to college is to get that higher paying job.
Caleb,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the mandatory retirement age is part of the issue, but the main reason for the pilot shortage is due to the low income for your first few years and the very expensive flight training. The average starting salary for a regional airline is $26,000. During your flight training, you're likely to pay approximately $26,000 just between your private and instrument rating. When you add on your commercial, multi-engine, and flight instructor ratings, you're likely to be right around $50,000-$60,000. This training is equivalent to two years worth of pay at a regional airline. Thus, I strongly believe that the low pay and high flight costs are the main reason behind the pilot shortage. If the pay does not increase significantly soon, then the pilot shortage is likely to strongly increase.
I agree that there are multiple factors contributing to the shortage of pilots in the airlines. Low pay is definitly a factor, but as pay is now increasing, I think we will still see a shortage of pilots. You make a good observations.
ReplyDeleteI agree there are a ton of things going on in the airlines that are causing this shortage. I do agree with you that low pay is the largest factor out of these. The nice thing on that end of the spectrum however is that pilot wages are going up. Endeavor for example has a starting wage of $50000. Good points throughout your blog though
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