iscover
FEAST OR FAMINE Come the next boom there might not be enough experienced pilots to meet demand. (Paul Sadler)
Pilots jobs and careers
0 comment
What an industry! Less than two years ago employers were doing two circuits of the aircrew-available barrel looking for pilots. Now there are wholesale layoffs and retrenchments. Feast or famine!
It must be acknowledged that Australia is in a recession along with the rest of the world. When there is a lack of money in circulation business and holiday travellers cut back on air travel. Less aircraft flying means less aircrew required. That in turn means tough times for a number of aircrew members who less than two years ago were in high demand. In a number of cases aircrew had relocated to be close to their new employment. Now a number are out of a job or at best have had their flight hours and pay drastically cut back. The airlines and charter are most affected. Some airline aircraft are being put out to grass or sold off and the mining fly-in, fly-out program has been drastically cut back. Some aircrew have gone back down the careers ladder into the jobs or type of jobs that they had before they started flying for the airlines. Qantas has announced that it is to cut back by more than a thousand staff including some flight crew. Virgin has also flagged its intent to cut back on staff. Ironically the one area that does not appear to have been affected as yet is the flight training sector, in particular those organisations that are training foreign nationals.
This content is available exclusively to Australian Aviation members.
A monthly membership is only $5.99 or save with our annual plans.
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
There is no firm idea of when the economy will start to climb out of recession but if that was to take place in say 2-3 years locals and overseas nationals commencing or currently under training will be well placed to surf the next wave of pilot employment. And it will come, but when?
Pilots numbers, both commercial and that of instructors, have been decreasing over the last few years. Should that continue as one could reasonably expect then come the next surge in demand for pilots there just might not be enough experienced aircrew available both in Australia and overseas to meet that demand. Those that are available and taken up could well look at more acceptable remuneration packages bearing in mind that aircrew salaries have been kept down for a number of years and that if the roller coaster ride in demand for aircrew is to continue then pilots should make preparations for that distant drop in employment demand.
That Casa D&a Calendar
Did you as an aviation person receive the CASA Drugs & Alcohol (D&A) desk calendar in early April? What a waste of public money! Whose money? Our money!
A list of errors. The calendar for 2009 came out in the fourth month of the year. It is in small print. The year 2010 has the month of March completely missing. The whole month of October has been brought forward by one day so that there is September 30, a Thursday, as well as October 1, also a Thursday. In short the calendar is useless. It arrived in an A4 envelope. One could hazard a guess as to how much the artwork, printing, packing and postage cost. Certainly in excess of $20,000.
All aviation persons that this writer spoke with regarding the calendar said they had consigned it to the round file as being useless.
The item was designed to bring D&A testing to the attention of aviation people. If anything it has had a negative affect. Perhaps just the covering letter and brochure would have been enough, and in a smaller envelope at a lower cost.
One has to ask how was it that the draft was not proof read, for accuracy as well as readability. One would have expected the draft to have been read by several people including the printer. Clearly it was not.
On April 2 this writer sent an email to Richard Farmer, whose signature appeared on the covering letter, commenting on the calendar. A reply was received the next day advising that Mr Farmer was no longer with CASA and that the email had been forwarded to his replacement. More than a month later no reply had been received. One has to presume that this is the new benchmark in replies to a ‘customer’ by CASA.
On April 8 this writer created history (!) by becoming the first aviation person to be D&A field tested in Australia. The result was negative. During the testing process the CASA representative was asked did Mr Farmer walk or was he pushed. The CASA rep replied by saying that he was now with another agency. The question was asked again and the reply was ‘let us just stick to the testing’. Readers can draw their own conclusion.
It has been said that CASA has at times told operators and pilots alike to lift their game. That expression now lies at the doorstep of CASA.
Contact Dave by email at: [email protected]
Want to see more stories from trusted news sources?
Make Australian Aviation a preferred news source on Google.
Click here to add Australian Aviation as a preferred news source.
