A good news day

Sure, the profit-and-loss columns spread good cheer and the promise of a dividend was very welcome, but there are those who read between the lines.

Pilots being pilots, we value the introduction of a new aircraft and positive movement on the seniority list. The chance of an airline career rather than merely an airline job means a great deal to those who sit on the flightdeck and stagnation is never very welcome in a workforce in which many have fought tooth and nail just to enter the industry.

Healthy ambition, focus and at times an obsessive drive can be needed to make one’s way in aviation. Living nomadically, moving from job to job in search of experience is all par for the course in the life of a pilot. It is a rather dynamic, if not secure existence, until that letterhead arrives offering a position with a major airline.

However, as we know, aviation moves in peaks and troughs. And while some may surf the wave, for many, the rapid life of change that exists before the airline position is replaced by a more staid progression. The stability on offer allows relationships and real estate to develop, but career progression is now taken from the hands of the individual and replaced by the slowticking numbers of airline pilot seniority.

Slow times in an airline leave pilots constantly surveying their options.

Should they be patient and stay or set course for a far-flung land and the promises of an airline command? For some the decision is simple, for others tortuous and a good many are quite happy to stay put. However, Nirvana lies in a flourishing airline close to home and the latest news coming out of Qantas may just offer a glimpse. Still, there is much to be done.

The implementation does not, and cannot, take place overnight. It is a long road from exercising purchase options to hearing “V1 – Rotate” on commercial operations. The project has to be carefully managed by an experienced team from within the airline. Training syllabi, manuals and procedures all need to be developed, trialled and approved before the first pilots and engineers can even begin their endorsements in earnest. As each airframe begins its journey down the production line, those destined to operate it are hard at work preparing for its eventual arrival. That all-conquering seniority list must be aligned with pilots’ bidding preferences and entitlements to see who will be the first to fly the new machine. Sometimes it will be those displaced by a retiring aircraft type, sometimes it is those next in line, depending on the airline and the system employed. Often this maze can be as complex as the hydraulic systems they are set to study.

Further down the food chain of queueing pilots, movement filters down as changes in aircraft type or the possibility of a first command come about. In the world of airline promotion, any movement is good movement, particularly when stagnation has prevailed for any significant period beforehand. And beyond the airline’s realm, the aspiring pilot reading the newspaper gathers a degree of hope. A new type may equate to recruitment and even if the flightdeck is beyond their current reach, perhaps they can fill the void of another moving onto the airlines.

So often the financial markets respond to speculation with both positive and negative trends. Aviation can also bounce between optimism and the doldrums based upon a shred of evidence, so the confirmation of the delivery of actual new aeroplanes is cause for a degree of hope. That being said, sometimes too much hope can give those same financial markets the jitters as aeroplanes cost a large slice of cash. However, as every business knows, sometimes you have to spend money to make money.

Even so, a lot can always occur in the ensuing years between announcement and entry into service. Someone once said to only believe that a new aircraft type has arrived when you’re on the end of the runway and advancing the thrust levers. Still, the signs are good. For Qantas, the first Boeing 787s would appear to be on their way and undoubtedly there are many pilots waiting with bated breath for news of even more Dreamliners heading their way.

Nothing is written in stone, but compared to the grim outlook of 12 months ago, a new air of positivity is starting to creep into certain spheres. Only time will tell the full extent of the new emerging hope on the horizon, but in an industry that takes its fair share of hits, it was certainly a change to have a good news day.