Keeping pace?

As Aviation Australia CEO Paul Bredereck explains, demand is beginning to push up towards levels experienced just prior to the global financial crisis. “There is again pressure now starting to emerge for skilled people. It hasn’t reached critical points yet like it was in 2007, but there are some alarming trends there,” he said.

Three years ago, regional carriers were struggling as a number of experienced pilots and engineers were attracted by the growing major airlines. This had a major downstream effect, with regional operators taking on more pilots from general aviation operators, which caused some major headaches for those smaller companies.

As a result, the industry undertook a number of measures, including hiring some pilots and engineers from overseas using skilled migration visas. Some carriers also extended the time that their employees were required to give notice of their intention to leave, to allow them to better plan their recruitment.

That situation changed somewhat during 2008 as the global financial crisis took hold.

Demand for skilled labour eased considerably as the global aviation industry bore the brunt of the economic downturn. This saw a number of carriers curtail their growth plans, in some cases implementing hiring freezes or not replacing attrition, resulting in less global demand for engineers and pilots.

As a result, most operators in Australia were given some breathing space, particularly as many skilled workers nearing retirement or looking for the next step up the career ladder chose to stay in their positions due to the uncertain economic outlook.

Some operators used the conditions to their advantage, as Bredereck explains. “The good companies that were only marginally affected by the global financial crisis took the opportunity to recruit some highperforming individuals to keep their talent topped up. We saw that happening all around the world. ” The start of this year has seen renewed confidence from a number of aviation companies across Australia. Currently, all the major carriers have orders for new aircraft, while regional and charter carriers have benefited from the resurgence of the mining industry. This is leading to concerns that once again there may be some challenges to fill skilled labour positions within the industry.

Still, the last few years have seen some important changes aimed at combating a skills shortage. There has been a general increase in the number of places for technical vocational training in key areas, while changes to the federal government’s FEEHELP scheme have allowed some prospective pilots to defer part of the upfront cost of their flying training.

The industry has also been responsive in opening up new training opportunities.

Qantas has announced that it has doubled its intake of aircraft maintenance engineering apprentices, while Airservices Australia has also started new programs to train technicians to maintain its network of navigation aids.

Major strides have also been made in training pilots, with Jetstar launching a new cadet pilot scheme which will start later this year. Regional Express has also had great success with its cadet pilot scheme, and has now opened a new facility for its Australian Airline Pilot Academy operation in Wagga Wagga. In coming years, it is expected that other carriers such as Virgin Blue and some of the larger regional carriers may also look to launch their own cadet programs.

But while the opportunities are opening up, there is some concern that the right people for the skilled jobs are not being attracted to the aviation industry. “Twenty years ago, you could walk up and touch aeroplanes, go to the cockpit and all sorts of things. Today, we do all we can to discourage people from interacting with aeroplanes, and we wonder why we’re not getting the best talent into the industry,” said Bredereck.

“We need to be winning the best and brightest talent into the aviation industry, and not letting them go off into IT or other careers. That remains one of the biggest challenges going forward,” he added.

Pilots

With a number of operators around the world once again looking to add capacity, demand for pilots is expected to grow strongly over the next few years.

Locally, the major airlines have already been quite active. “The demand for pilots from the major airlines has been steadily increasing this year with Virgin Blue, Jetstar and Tiger all actively recruiting. Qantas is the only major Australian airline not taking on pilots at the moment,” said Regional Express managing director Jim Davis.

“We see this continuing for the next couple of years as airlines continue to import new aircraft into the country. We will hopefully not see some of the extremes of 2007/2008 but we do expect to be facing a shortage of pilots over this period,” he added.

As was the case in previous years, Australian carriers are likely to face competition to retain their experienced pilots as other airlines overseas look to benefit from the strong recovery in airline traffic, particularly in Asia. Recently, Emirates announced that it plans to increase its hiring of pilots to 700 this year, with other airlines likely to follow suit.

In light of this, local operators have focused their attention on increasing the training pipeline, led by Jetstar, which has recently opened intakes for its first lot of cadet pilots. Initially this will see 70 pilots go through its programs at CTC Aviation in New Zealand and Oxford Aviation Academy in Melbourne. The program offers two streams – one of which caters for those candidates who already have a CPL, multi-engine command instrument rating and ATPL subjects, as well as an ab initio stream for candidates without any previous flying experience.

Unlike other cadet pilot programs, Jetstar’s will be the first which will see cadets go straight into first officer positions on the A320 fleet. That style of training raises a number of different arguments, with some pilots claiming that real airmanship and other emergency skills can be honed in the GA environment. However, some others, including some check and training captains, say that getting cadets who are trained in the company’s standard operating procedures from day one will result in a better pilot more suited to modern cockpits and procedures.

Regional Express has also been successfully running its cadet program since 2007, and will soon start recruiting cadets for its next intake. Chris Manning, the chairman of the Australian Aviation Associations Forum and a former Qantas chief pilot, isfull of praise for the approach that Rex has taken to open the APAA. “I think what they’ve done in Wagga with pilot training is absolutely fantastic. It’s probably the greatest leap I’ve seen in pilot training in a while,” he said.

Davis noted that the establishment of the cadet program and the AAPA has paid dividends for the company. “Virtually all our pilots are now recruited through the Rex cadet scheme which has taken on 85 cadets so far. This has proven to be very successful and as we are extremely thorough with the selection process we are able to get the right sort of pilot,” he said.

While cadet schemes see the airlines contribute to the cost of pilot training, they are not a free ride. Both the Jetstar and Rex schemes require some upfront payments, while students will also be required to pay back some of the cost of their training through salary sacrifice if they are offered positions with the company. In that way, the programs are also a useful retention tactic.

The rise of such cadet schemes and their popularity could pose a further challenge to the GA industry, which has traditionally relied upon pilots who need to build up their hours before moving into the airlines or other operators. Nevertheless, Jetstar admits that the cadet scheme will not be able to cater for all of its demand in the future, and that it will continue to recruit from GA and regional airlines.

As a result, smaller operators are expected to again face issues with retaining staff.

“We find the major airlines tend to target regional carriers and Rex in particular,” said Davis. “As the number of experienced pilots in GA has dwindled with the large amount of recruiting done by the airlines in recent years, the regional pilots are becoming more attractive to the major airlines. ”

Engineering

Major career opportunities are expected to open up in engineering in the short term, particularly as many licensed aircraft maintenance engineers (LAMEs) look once again towards retirement and the increased fleet of aircraft requires more support.

As in previous years, a number of operators have reported that avionics engineers are particularly in strong demand, with many forced to pay higher wages to attract the best staff. This appears to be a function of the more advanced aircraft types which now make up most of the RPT fleet in Australia.

Bredereck says that a major issue is that there are just not enough apprentice aircraft maintenance engineers being employed in Australia to meet the needs of the industry going forward. “We’re seeing a continued contraction in the number of apprentices being employed across the industry. The attitude towards employing apprentices is getting worse, not getting better. ” “The simple fact is that nationally we’re probably training 250 or 300 apprentices less than what the industry needs for a sustainable skilled workforce in the future, and that’s a very worrying sign. ” That is despite Qantas increasing its intake of apprentices significantly this year, while some MROs such as John Holland Aviation Services have also indicated that they will once again take on apprentices.

“There should be a real round table look at where we’re going, and that has to come from obviously the government and the industry.”

Bredereck points to the general aviation industry as being one sector which has been reticent to take on apprentices. “I think a lot of the smaller general aviation companies have had an attitude for a number of years of ‘well, if we train them, we’re only going to lose them to the bigger airlines’. ” But Manning says that it isn’t as simple as that for many smaller operators. “It’s OK to say employ more, but if you don’t have the money it’s quite difficult. ” Bredereck also says that overseas airlines which operate local line maintenance facilities also have a part to play in increasing their intakes of apprentices. “We have other airlines, particularly ones from Asia that have local staff that do not do a lot of investment in local training. Their model has been to pay a bit more and poach people.

I think some of those are going to start to feel the pinch in one to two years’ time. ”One exception to this is Etihad Airways, which recently started a unique program with Aviation Australia. “Their strategy has been to take the cream of our graduates, take them to Abu Dhabi for a few years to train them up and get them licensed on aircraft like the 777s and A330 and ultimately send them back to Australia as their line engineers, which I think is a very visionary and bold commitment to the industry,” said Bredereck.

A major step forward which could help to ease some engineer shortages has been the move in recent years to standardise training of military aircraft technicians and civil aircraft engineers. This should allow for more movement into the industry from those who have had military experience.

Crucially, many moving out of the military do so while in their 30s and 40s, meaning that they can continue to work for a number of years before retiring.

While there are concerns about the number of people entering the training pipeline, Bredereck also says that there are emerging issues for the industry in maintaining engineering talent at the management level. “There is certainly a degree of talent that we’re losing. The most worrying area of that is the managerial talent – the engineering managers and chief engineers. ” To address some of those needs, Aviation Australia has started establishing Bachelor level qualifications which Bredereck says are aimed at equipping trade-qualified engineers to gain the necessary skills to make it in management.

Changes needed

As training places have opened up and new career paths within the aviation industry are being made, further changes will be required by the industry and government to ensure that the best candidates are able to be attracted to a career in the industry.

“I look at the number of funded positions that Aviation Australia has got, and we can’t fill all those places with good quality, talented young people,” said Bredereck.

One key way forward will be for the industry to promote itself to the next generation, a theme which was picked up on in the government’s Aviation White Paper.

“It is important to promote the range of employment opportunities in the industry to both teachers and school-age students while students are considering their career path and the study required to reach their goals,” it reads.

Bredereck says that this needs to start at a local level, and need not involve large coordinated efforts. “If you’re a regional operator in a big country town, you need to be building relationships with your schools.

You don’t need to be coordinating with 20 other people to do it,” said Bredereck.

Removing financial barriers for potential students will also be a major issue for attracting and retaining the right people to take on skilled roles within the industry. In particular, Bredereck notes that the low level of Youth Allowance and the strict means testing based on parents’ income presents a major barrier for some students undertaking pre-vocational courses. “What that means is that the kids can’t survive doing the course unless they work. However, the workload of the course is such that if they are working they will probably fail the course. That is one of the biggest barriers at getting the best talent into our industry,” he said.

He notes that in Aviation Australia’s case that there is a 20 per cent dropout rate from its pre-vocational course, of which most drop out for economic reasons. “Unfortunately we lose them to our industry, and that’s almost criminal,” he said.

Ultimately, Manning sees that the industry has the biggest role to play with influencing the government to address the issue of skills in the aviation industry, and that will require more coordination than there currently is. “I think there has to be a better dialogue. There is currently no method of having that dialogue, other than interested individuals talking, but there is no industry type group or association to do that, which is why it’s quite hard. ” “There should be a real round table look at where we’re going, and that has to come from obviously the government and the industry,” he added.

Overall though, Bredereck puts the biggest responsibility on the senior management levels at operators across the industry who will have to change their views of training from a cost to an investment in the future. “The only way that’s going to happen is if the companies themselves have the fundamental belief that they need to invest in the next generation,” he said.