Wall Street Journal TV - Effect of Pilot Shortage

[single_swine_herder]

Interesting and pretty accurate description of the pilot shortage situation at the regional level and the effect of the lack of feeder capacity to the mainline system summed up in 3 minutes.

http://live.wsj.com/video/us-pilot-shor ... 73BF337A7E

[photofly]

I find it hilarious that everyone is sitting around scratching their heads in amazement on finding that

i) higher entry qualifications for new airline pilots
ii) low fares and service to "unpopular" destinations

are not compatible.

[Mr. North]

How to solve the regional pilot shortage:

1. Pay a livable wage!!!

[TrailerParkBoy]

How to solve the regional pilot shortage:

1. Pay a livable wage!!!

That solution exists in Canada, although the mainlines will continue to seek the lowest bidder. The LCP (Low Cost Pilot) will eventually find a seat at a LCC (Low Cost Carrier).

Sky Regional, Encore, Rouge, Air Georgian, who's next!

[Marinth]

How to solve the regional pilot shortage:

1. Pay a livable wage!!!

Sorry, you are incorrect.

Great Lakes Aviation (Cheyenne, Wyoming) has suspended service to and from Devils Lake and Jamestown, North Dakota; Fort Dodge and Mason City, Iowa; Ironwood, Michigan; and Thief River Falls, Minnesota due to the severe industry-wide pilot shortage and its relative acute impact on Great Lakes according to a company statement.

Charles Howell, CEO released the following statement: “Due to the unintended consequences of the new congressionally mandated pilot regulatory requirements, the company feels it is in the best interest of our customers, communities, and employees to suspend service from these stations until we are able to rebuild our staff of pilots in order to provide reliable service. We deeply regret and apologize for this inconvenience.”

The solution is clearly to remove regulations and keep paying $14,000 a year(roughly the starting wage at Great Lakes Aviation).

[countryhick]

You forgot the $7500/15 month "training contract", and oh, you don't get paid for initial training......

[FL020]

WHY doesn't someone post this to the CEO's email? What a complete joke he's turned the place into!?

[FL020]

You forgot the $7500/15 month "training contract", and oh, you don't get paid for initial training......

I really hope you're kidding...........over a Hundred Grand to train on a Beech/ or Embraer?

[Mr. North]

The real sick part is there are guys all over the American pilot forums that are still thinking of "toughing it out".

[countryhick]

I really hope you're kidding...........over a Hundred Grand to train on a Beech/ or Embraer?

The contract is $7500 and is 15 months in duration

[sstaurus]

At least Lee Moak recognizes the airlines are just crying wolf to get regulations changed back. There's only a shortage of those willing to work for US airlines.

[trey kule]

The problem is not a pilot shortage per se, but a shortage of experienced and qualified pilots.
The industry, for economic reasons bought into the pay them nothing and hire low time pilots.
It took some time, but the combination resulted in many deaths.

Paying higher wages will of course help, but the problem of lack of experienced pilots is the real issue.

In the past, in Canada, bush operators, float operators, and the smaller 703/702 operators provided experienced pilots. Things have changed. Now an experienced bush pilot has to take a huge hit in salary to go with the airlines...increased wages at the airline level will mitigate this.

But....there simply is not enough opportunity for new pilots to get the necessary experience. The flight colleges tried to portray that they could replace experience with training...it is not the case despite the few isolated direct hires.

Low time pilots dont understand the value of experience. Airlines want to cut their flight crew costs, and,quite frankly, when accountants get involved,they also dont understand.

The new generation of pilots is totally indoctrinated into the pay your dues mentality.

The US congress, in my opinion, had little choice to protect the public.

Now we have the multi crew license. Not one of the braniacs that dreamed up and implemented this license seems to be able to see where it will lead. These are not pilots. They are assistants to the captain. And that is all they will ever be, though I suspect we will have to wait until some of them eventually get upgraded and people die again.

The fact is we do have a pilot shortage...of experienced pilots. And no matter what all the colleges tell you, experience is gold...now we have to deal with the parker pen group who manage to get their ATPL license, with their only experience being creative logging of time

My rant for the day

[fish4life]

Things are changing though the "small " operators that used to run just piston twins now run king airs and the 703/04 companies like perimeter are running a bunch of 705 airplanes like dash 8's so this has also changed the way pilots are paying there dues as well as creating career airlines out of companies that used to be stepping stones.

[Gino Under]

trey

You're 100% spot on!

Cheers,
Gino

[Spaceshuttle]

Good point fish4, the face of this industry is definately changing...