CAT Editor-in-Chief Rick Adams, FRAeS, talks with Kit Darby, one of the leading experts on professional pilot careers about the state of the North American aviation market – recovery, retirements, furloughs, pay packages, and advice for moving to the head of the queue when hiring restarts (perhaps sooner than you think).
The first section of this five part series is on Airline Recovery Scenarios and the Impact of Pilot Retirements.
Kit Darby outlines possible airline recovery models, pilot retirements at the major US airlines, scenarios for the resumption of pilot hiring, and a comparison of airline early-retirement offers.
CAT Editor-in-Chief Rick Adams spoke with the ECA’s Capt. Otjan de Bruijn about the uncertain prospects for pilots of European carriers.
Pilots flying for airlines based in European Union countries are perhaps more at risk than their American counterparts for two critical reasons: so-called “self-employment” contracts at low-cost carriers and a smaller pool of senior pilots expected to retire.
Of the 65,000 pilots in the EU (40,000 of them represented by the European Cockpit Association), about 12,000 were hired under what ECA refers to as “atypical” contracts, i.e. self-employed freelancers rather than airline employees in schemes used by such airlines as Norwegian and Ryanair. Capt. Otjan de Bruijn, Vice President of the volunteer-run association and a B777 pilot for KLM, told CAT they conservatively estimate half of such pilots lost their jobs early in the Covid crisis.
In addition, ECA estimates another 9,000 traditional pilot jobs are at risk, or 15,000 total.
CAT Editor-in-Chief Rick Adams, FRAeS, talks with Kit Darby, one of the leading experts on professional pilot careers about the state of the North American aviation market – recovery, retirements, furloughs, pay packages, and advice for moving to the head of the queue when hiring restarts (perhaps sooner than you think).
The second section of this five part series is on Furloughs, Leaves of Absence, and the US CARES Act .
Kit discusses “what scares him more” than the coronavirus. Also, furloughs, leaves of absence, and what happens when the CARES Act expires in October.
As the Covid-19 pandemic persists, and students return to campuses across the United States, there has not been a significant decline in the number of students enrolled in pilot-degree programs, according to a survey of aviation educators. Nearly 90% of schools report “little or no change.”
Only one school reported more than 15% cancellations or degree changes. About one-quarter indicated a “melt” of 5-15% in students committed to attending (though up from 10% a month ago). One-third are seeing less than 5% change, and 26.47% indicated all enrolled students plan to attend.
Surprisingly, in the wake of the devastation in the airline industry, nearly 40% of the universities will have a higher number of students than started a year ago. Only 15% expect a lower number, and 36.4% are level with 2019.
Ken Byrnes, Chair of the Flight Training Department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), who moderates the ad-hoc national group’s periodic Zoom discussions, cautioned, “As the airline industry slows, interest can start to wane,” but he reminded that the process of becoming an airline pilot “is a four- to five-year journey, and the industry is going to need a significant amount of pilots in the near future.”
When the FAA releases revised guidelines for pilot training for the modified Boeing 737 MAX, insiders expect a motion-based FFS will not be required. CAT Editor-In-Chief, Rick Adams, FRAeS, reports.
The anticipated training requirements for the modified Boeing 737 MAX aircraft will not likely require hardware changes to full-flight simulators or other MAX flight training devices which have already been built. “We’ve just done a large update to all the segments,” CAE’s Nick Leontidis told CAT. “The FAA and everybody else are doing their testing; there’s some required modifications, and we have just finished an update for all our sims. So things seem to be progressing in the right direction. I’m going to assume that things are quite mature at the moment.” Leontidis, Group President, Civil Aviation Training Solutions, for the Montréal-based simulator manufacturer and training services provider, confirmed that the updates are software-only.
“They’re obviously being very, very quiet about the whole thing,” he added. CAE had a representative on the FAA working group evaluating the training changes.
Flights grounded, training centres locked down, simulator deliveries hampered. Yet the training device industry has proven remarkably resilient. CAT Editor Rick Adams, FRAeS, spoke with several company leaders about how the market is changing.
This is an industry that’s bounced back from terrorist attacks, volcano ash, and previous economic crises. Did anyone think a microscopic virus would dampen the make-it-happen spirit of people whose daily mission is to defy gravity?
The initial assumption was no flights, no pilots necessary. No training, no schools, no simulators. Possibly for a very long time.
But that’s not necessarily the case. As airlines restart operations, pilots need to be current, which may require more than the usual training if they’ve been idled for awhile.
John Bent and Chris Ranganathan have answered the 28 questions we ran out of time to answer during the live ATO Of The Future Webinar. Hear more from Chris Ranganathan, Chief Learning Officer of CAE, during Global Airline Training & Simulation - Virtual this November 10-12.
In their attempts to weed out passengers infected with the Covid-19 virus, more airports and airlines are implementing tests, temperature checks, and even dog-sniffers to identify flyers who should be denied departure boarding or quarantined on arrival.
A prime example is Frankfurt Airport, which together with Lufthansa, the German Red Cross and rare disease research company Centogene has established the first walk-in Covid testing facility in Germany. A Centogene representative told CAT they are currently conducting about 3,500 to 4,000 tests per day, with more than 50,000 tests since the facility opened in late June.
The SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) test detects whether an acute infection with the virus is present. It has received Emergency Use Authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration.