Market Intelligence: -Airline Hiring

Pilot Demand Front Page of Major Indian Newspaper

The rapid air travel recovery, restoration of airline pilot salaries in India and hiring by new startup airlines in India has driven a strong demand for pilots which is making the front page news of one of India’s most important Newspapers ‘The Economic Times’. Below text taken from Economic Times article;

“As things now stand, the sector is staring at a huge shortage of trained, type-rated pilots and ramp engineers. Various estimates showed that about 400-600 commercial pilots graduate every year from various flying training schools in India, whereas the country would require 1,500-2,000 pilots per year to meet the rising demand for air travel. That will mean the industry will need about 10,000 pilots over the next five years in a ‘business-as-usual’ situation.

Top flying schools and a host of newly established FTOs (flying training organisations) have seen a 25-30% increase in demand for training of pilots, engineers and cabin crew.

“There is a big push coming from the government in promoting aviation academies, which can not only help meet the domestic demand for pilots but also make India a flying destination – even for foreign students,” said Captain Bhagvati president, Bombay Flying Club. “We have seen a 25-30% increase in inquiries for training of pilots, engineers and cabin crew and a 10-15% increase in admissions.”

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US Airline Cutting Service to Hawaii due to Pilot Shortage

US based Sun Country Airlines has announced that it is cutting its service to Hawaii for the rest of the year “due to the current pilot shortage impacting all U.S. airlines”.

“Anticipating that we will continue to be operationally constrained by workforce shortages, including crew, Sun Country is adjusting our summer flying schedule to align better with staffing and aircraft availability. We are eliminating service to Fairbanks and Honolulu – two long-haul flights that will also save on high fuel costs. We apologize to our guests for the change.” Wendy Burt, Sun Country Airlines spokesperson told KHON2.

Hawaii has been dealing with a number of flight interruptions with Hawaiian Airlines cancelling a number of flights over the easter weekend due to pilot training and simulator constrains.

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Pilot Union Sues Airline Over Shortage of Training Pilots

American Airlines – Allied Pilots Association – has sued the airline in a US Federal Court over a shortage of Instructor Pilots. The airline is currently using ‘rank-and-file’ pilots to fill in during training.

The Allied Pilots Association said the recent move use pilots as partners during training simulations “degrades the training experience and risks long-term damage to the airline’s safety culture.”

“Having failed to plan properly for the recovery in air travel demand, American Airlines management now finds itself having to deal with the consequences of being the only major airline to have furloughed pilots during the pandemic,” said Allied Pilots Association President Eric Ferguson in a statement.

“Management was clearly ill-prepared for the rebound in airline traffic and has been selling tickets for flights the airline may be unable to operate due to a shortage of properly qualified pilots, despite management’s recent assurances to the contrary,” he said.

“This program is designed to give line pilots the opportunity to support the flight training simulator program, which is good for our pilots and provides even more training capacity to support continued growth,” American Airlines spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said. “The pilots volunteering are highly qualified and experienced, and are responsible for the safety of our customers and fellow crew members every day.”

The legal proceedings started following American Airlines allowing ‘rank and file pilots’ be ‘seat fillers’ after a single day of training.

That practice could compromise training, said Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association.

“You need a trained professional in there who knows what they should do and what they shouldn’t do so it’s a pure evaluation,” Tajer said. “They are only asking for one day of training and it takes three to six months to train a check airman.”

American Airlines said it hired and trained more than 575 pilots in 2021 and another 600 so far this year, according to a letter the company sent to pilots and check airmen Wednesday. It’s now training new pilots at a pace of 50 to 70 a week with hopes to get about 2,000 new pilots on board this year.

Source: The Dallas Morning News

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US Airline Slows Down Pilot Hiring Due To Instructor Shortfall

One of the leading low cost carriers in the US – Southwest Airlines – is slowing down its hiring of pilots due to the airline not having enough flight instructors. The airline revised its annual hiring estimate of new First Officers down by 148 to 1,200. The shortage of flight instructors affects the training departments ability to oversee classroom curriculum and training on equipment and flight simulators for new pilots and for those upgrading to captain.

“It’s a bottleneck,” Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, said in an interview. “They are doing the absolute best they can, but they just don’t have the people for the amount of training needed.” as quoted by Bloomberg. The result of the lower number of Pilots means that Southwest will have 7% less flying capacity this quarter than in 2019.

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