Flying Smart?

The regional airline industry today is in some sort of disarray. Companies like Expressjet, Endeavor, SkyWest and other companies are finding it harder to find pilots due to the shortage that is going on in the aviation industry. Is it that no one is finding flying as interesting as it once was during the 50s? Is it the amount of training and money it takes to fly for the airlines? Whatever questions you might have, I believe that the pilot shortage is real based on projected retirements and the amount of new hires coming into the business. Jon Ostrower says that" over the next two decades, 87 new pilots will need to be trained and fly a commercial airliner everyday to in order to meet the insatiable demand to travel by air" (Ostrower, 2017). In lamer terms that's a pilot every 15 minutes to be trained in the airplane, learning the rules of the air, standard operating procedures and so on. What most companies are trying to combat the ongoing demand is offering sign on bonuses and bumping the First Officer pay up to have new pilots sign on with them. I think the pay increase can go both ways depending how you look at it. It's good because the First Officers are finally being payed the right wages compared to what they were but also can be bad because of the experience most of these pilots have before coming into these regional airline companies. 

Another problem that is going on is the 1,500 hour rule most regional airlines are dealing with. This is a problem because it makes new hires stay down in either flight instructing or earning their time some other way while all of the older pilots on Delta or United are retiring faster. CEO Chip Childs from SkyWest talked to legislators for assistance for the need for pilots saying "There are a lot of retirements happening in the mainline carriers, and there is simply not enough backfilling." (Silk, 2017). What Silk also went on talking about is that the Airline Transport Pilot license which is the last rating any pilot needs to be able to fly for the airlines is soo much money and only to get hired in at poverty level salaries isn't good at all. I think that some possible solutions for this could be maybe lowering the 1,500 hour rule down a little but make the pilots go through more training on the airplanes. Not only will this help the steady flow of pilots coming into the industry, but will also help out the regionals when these FOs are adequately trained and can move up to the captains seat. 

I believe that the term professionalism means how an individual carries themselves while they are performing a task at their job. Most pilots today carry themselves as intelligent, easy going and helpful people making sure that your flight experience on the plane exceeds expectations. 

In the documentary Flying Cheap both the pilots and management were at fault for lacking professionalism. On the pilots side, both pilots were not in any way or shape to fly the airplane. Both pilots were fatigued and the other pilot was sick and should have of called off. On the management side, Colgan should have of not let the captain fly with the amount of check rides he ended up failing. 

I feel that the first year pilot pay and the compensation structure of the regional airline was a contributing factor because these people are required to come into work and handle the flight as quick and safely as possible. These first year pilots are scrounging for money to pay for hotels, food, and many other things to survive and the regionals aren't helping them in any way. I think that maybe the bump in pay will help a little but to help out the first years a lot would be giving them breaks on hotels so they can be able to sleep well and not having to stay in crash pads.

Works Cited

Ostrower, J. (2017, July 31). The U.S. will face a staggering shortage for pilots. Retrieved January 21, 2018, from http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/27/news/companies/pilot-shortage-figures/index.html

Silk, R. (2017, August 18). How the 1,500-hour rule created a pilot shortage: Travel Weekly. Retrieved January 21, 2018, from http://www.travelweekly.com/Robert-Silk/How-1500-hour-rule-created-pilot-shortage