Flying cheap vs Flying professional

The current status of regional airline industry is that the profit margin is getting lower, which mains it is harder and harder to make profit from the regional operations, according to my research, Delta CEO mentions that most of the 50 seats regional jets for example CRJ-200 series and EMB145. They requires 150% loading factors to make money, (CAPA, 2015) the estimation show that the retirement of 50 and lower seats regional aircraft will be significantly increasing.

In terms of pilot shortage, I believe it is real and it is not only happening in U.S but all around the world, especially according to the number of new pilot will be entering the industry. The industry will be facing a significant shortage of pilots. It is not hard to find the reason, firstly pilot is a highly processioned job, and it take a long time and high cost to fully trained and qualified pilots. Yet the standard can’t be lowered even if it is facing a shortage due to the high safety requirement for the industry. The shortage of pilot is more critical within the regional industry, since it is more stressful, low paid, and many pilot was taking it as a temporary job to gain more flight hours. (Smith, 2016) according to the statistic from Forbes, the pilot demand for the next 20 years is about 95000, however the maximum supply for 1500 hour fully trained pilots will be at 65000( Anderson, 2016)  the shortage is real, but it is definitely avoidable. There are people who is very poisoned about flying, however it requires mainline carrier, regional carrier and the flight school to cooperate together, to come out with better program for the next generation to believe that being a pilot is not as hard as they thought, the goal is achievable.

The new regulation increase the requirement for flight hour and certification for entry level pilots, which requires at 1500 hours to be hired and 250 hours as in commercial pilot certification. However before the Colgan air accident, the pilots can be hired to a regional airlines within hour as little as 350 hours. ( Smith 2016) most of the pilots take the regional airlines as an opportunity to gain hours fill up the gap between commercial certification and being hired by mainline carrier. After the regulation, they have spent much more money for training to get enough hours to be hired. I think increasing wage is not the only solution, the regional carrier should world coefficient with flight school, provide scholarship and financial aid to students to complete the 1500 hour training requirement. They could also provide student with student loan service, which they can pay the airline back from their future wage after they gets hired. it will also guaranty a position if they could complete the train with qualified score. Which gives whole lot more confident to for students to choose pilot as their career path.

In terms of unions, other than ALPA, there are several different kind of union for different type of aviation employees, according to my research on Southwest airlines, they gave a very detail chart about different work group and which unions they belongs to. Ramp, operations cargo, provisioning employees belongs to TWU (transport workers union). Pilots belongs to ALPA and SWAPA (South West Airlines Pilots Association). Mechanic Inspectors controllers, belongs to AMFA (Aircraft Mechanic Fraternal Association. Flight attendant are belongs to AFA (association of Flight attendants) (Southwest, 2016)

In my own word, I will define professionalism as “ completing all task and jobs according to professional expectations by using knowledge’s and appropriate skills ” In the documentary it is very obvious that both management and pilot did not demonstrate professionalism. As we all know, safety is the top priority for aviation industry, as a professional airline worker, safety of crew and passengers are the first factor we have to concern, one of the way that the management of colgan air demonstrates unprofessionalism is that they are placing probability on top of safety, some of their cost saving strategy was strongly affecting the safety of operation, for example hiring unqualified and less experienced pilots. Upgrading inexperienced pilot into captain position. Assigning flight missions to pilot without making sure they have appropriate amount of resting time, which causes operating under influence of fatigue. The second way if that the captain of the Colgan air 3407 clearly know that his qualification was strongly questionable, due the failure of different check ride, he clearly know about the standard and qualification of being a captain, however he decided to hide some of his record upon hiring by Colagn air, which could be an good explanation of he reacted wrong during the stall condition.

 I do agree that the pay of the first year pilot is contributing to un-professionalism, the low wage of the pilot is definitely a cost saving strategy for regional carriers, also according to the documentary, some of the pilot mentions that they are only get paid after the plane leaves the ground. The delays and cancellation of flights will strongly affect how much they are getting paid, this is definitely a cause of un-professionalism. It is very important for a pilot to make go and no-go decision professionally and the first concern should always be safety of operation, however the fact of not getting paid due to delay and cancellation will cause un-professionalism when they are making the decision, to take the risk to operate the plane under dangerous conditions. Just because they did not get paid enough. And also a lot of pilot will risk to fly the plane under the influence of fatigue, just because they are not getting paid enough and they want get more hours.

After I entered aviation industry, the first way that I plan to maintain my professionalism is to ensure, not only me but all my co-workers will be making all operational decisions by putting safety of crew and passengers on the top of the priority, because this is the way everyone are expecting us to be, nothing is more valuable of lives of human beings. Secondly I will make sure all of the operations will be conducting following the rule and regulations.

Anderson, B. (n.d.). Pilot Shortage Threatens To Slow U.S. Airline Growth. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverwyman/2016/01/28/pilot-shortage-threatens-to-slow-u-s-airline-growth/#660da69fbb6e

Labor Relations, South West Airlines. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://swamedia.com/channels/labor-relations/pages/labor-relations

Smith, P. (n.d.). Fact and Fallacy of the “Pilot Shortage”. Retrieved from http://www.askthepilot.com/pilot-shortage/

U.S. Regional airline restructuring Part I: Is consolidation inevitable  or essential? (n.d.). Retrieved from http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/us-regional-airline-restructuring-part-i-is-consolidation-inevitable--or-essential-217004