There are many claims that there is a pilot shortage in the U.S. Some may believe that the reason is that not enough people are willing to fly domestically, I on the other hand believe that the pilot shortage is real and must be addressed. Regional carriers rely on newly graduated pilots to fill the seats in the cockpit, and as soon as they can get hired by the mainline carriers, they jump right to the new job. Mainline carriers offer more incentives and much better pay than their regional counterparts. Because of the airline pilot shortage, these new pilots are finding new careers with the mainline carriers as soon as they meet the minimum standards. This creates a major disadvantage for the regionals because they are not able to find pilots to fly their aircraft. It is forcing them to park their aircraft, and also drop certain routes ("The Coming U.S Pilot Shortage is Real" 2015).
Regional pilots start at about $20000-$30000 when they get hired. I do not think that this is a reason for the pilot shortage. Most aspiring pilots know that the pay significantly goes up after a few years. The problem, I believe is to get more people interested in becoming pilots.
Because the new pilot regulations are so stringent, its costing people a lot of more money to become pilots because of all the hours they need. There are two solutions that I see for this. One solution is to lessen the monetary burden on student pilots. Maybe regional airlines could start cadet programs or offer scholarship programs to help students pay for their flight hours. The regionals in turn could require their students pilots to sign a contract that requires their employed pilots to fly a certain amount of hours before they can quit. The second solution is for the regionals to simply offer better pay to their pilots.
One major organization that represents a big part of the aviation industry employees is the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. They represent about 50000 flight attendants for 18 carriers ("About AFA").
Professionalism can be defined as the method in which a person acts to be in full compliance with his or her career. Professionalism is when a person goes to work fully prepared and ready to meet and exceed the expectations required to complete the job. Professionalism also means that a person behaves in a polite manner at work toward colleagues and customers.
Two ways that the Colgan pilots demonstrated a lack of professionalism was when the first officer went to work knowing she was sick, and not fully capable of doing the job. Another demonstration of lack of professionalism was the fact that the pilot had failed 5 check rides, and still was able to keep his job at Colgan.
I do not feel that the lack of compensation itself contributed to lack of professionalism. The pilots were pushed beyond their limits as shown in the documentary, and at one point they falsified documents in order to make a flight. I think if the pilots were allowed more sick days or were not pushed to complete the job at the expense of safety, then there would be less lack of professionalism.
One way I can expand the level of professionalism as a pilot is to make sure I get adequate sleep so I can be fully rested for a job. Another method for me would be make sure I am polite to my colleagues such as flight attendants, cleaners, and gate agents. Just because I get paid more, does not mean I can be rude and condescending to other colleagues.
References
About AFA. Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. Retrieved from: http://www.afacwa.org/about_afa
The Coming U.S Pilot Shortage is Real. (2015, February 16). Aviation Week Network. Retrieved from: http://aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/coming-us-pilot-shortage-real
I agree that pilots are examples of the entire organization. They are paid to do what they are told with no questions. If you have to fly sick, you fly sick in order to keep your job. It is hard to act in a professional manner when management tells you something unsafe is okay. Upper management has to be responsible for installing professionalism in it's employees.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the financial constraints of the FO led in part to this unfortunate accident. Here is my logic behind that, she had stated that she had been ill for a day or two before her trip, and that she didn't sleep well throughout her trip to her base, however she had opted to continue her travels any, and told the captain that if she called sick that she would have to pay for the hotel but if she finished her trip it would be on the company.Maybe is she had been a little more financially secure there would have been a more alert and observant FO on the flight and maybe the accident would never have happened. Granted the CPT had absolutely professionalism, first he allowed and incapacitated crewmen aboard, he then neglected to observe a sterile cockpit below 10,000 and also allowed things to happen on the flight deck to which he had no prior knowledge
ReplyDeleteGreetings,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post, I must say I concur with your sentiments; although I took the latter argument, reading your perspective pertaining to the former argument has enlightened me, which subsequently empowered me to become more cognizant about the industry. I noticed our responses contained similar information, specifically about the average pay for a regional pilot during their first year (i.e. $20,000 - $30,000). For a recent college graduate who may have a substantial amount of debt (e.g. $30,000 - $70,000), a salary of $30,000 is minute and not a truly sufficient income for life after graduation.
My favorite aspect of your post would be the two solutions you provided to make the regional airline industry more appealing in efforts to attract more pilots and combat the increasing pilot shortage. I strongly believe both solutions are viable, but of the two, I think regional airlines would be more willing to implement cadet programs and/or offer scholarships to student-pilots rather than increasing the pay due to the fact they have a source of recourse (via the employment contract), thereby securing their ‘asset’ for the future. However, the cadet and scholarship programs will only work to a certain extent, thus the regional airlines should strongly consider raising the pilot wage (as you stated in your second solution), especially for their first-year pilots. This should be done not only to retain their current employees and enhance their overall job satisfaction, but to attract recent graduates. My question to you is, how much do you feel the first-year pilot wage (if the average was $25,000/year) and the overall pilot-wage, be increased?
I believe your definition of professionalism was spot-on and very akin to mine; when tasked with defining the term, it took me much longer than I anticipated. I feel as if our generation and the successive one is diminishing the definition of professionalism because they do not know what it means to be professional. Although that is a matter of opinion, actions speak louder than words, and based off what I see from social media and personal accounts, individuals do not go to work fully prepared, nor do they exceed the expectations required by their employer. I think the most vital aspect of your definition was that individuals should behave in a polite manner and treat their colleagues (or customers) how they would want to be treated. Many individuals, especially when outside of work, do not implement this ‘golden rule’ into their everyday life.
Great post and keep up the good work!