Flight of pilots has airlines worried

[Mike Scott]

This article should be of some encouragement to a few people on the board with career aspirations in this direction. I took the liberty of posting it on our internal domicile web site as an FYI for those who are getting furlouged as a result of the UA downsize.
MS

AUSTRALIA'S pilot shortage could get worse before it gets better because there are not enough experienced instructors to teach those entering the profession, an aviation expert says.

Stephen Phillips, the head of the aviation academy at the University of South Australia, said figures from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority showed the pool of top-level instructors had been significantly eroded, leaving the industry struggling to train new pilots, particularly in the bush.

The figures, which the authority has not made public, indicate the number of grade 1 instructors fell by 88 to 842 in the 2007-08 financial year. Mr Phillips said figures for the past six weeks suggested the numbers were likely to remain steady for the next 12 months.

"At best they indicate stagnation, at worst regression," Mr Phillips told the Regional Aviation Association of Australia's annual convention.

"We're going to need an extra 7300 pilots by 2026, excluding corporate aviation and charter pilots. At this rate, we're not going to be able to train them. We haven't done enough to encourage people to become instructors."

The pool of instructors has also been drained by the big airlines, which recruit them to fill the gaps in their pilot rosters.

While soaring fuel prices have eased the big airlines' appetites for pilots in recent months, the aviation industry continues to suffer.

"The problem hasn't gone away because of the slowdown; it's just shifted," Mr Phillips said.

"The impact is being felt by operators other than the major airlines: regionals, charter operators and industries which rely on contract pilot work."

"We need smarter ways of going about this, offering scholarships and subsidies to instructors and salaries that encourage them to stay in the industry."

Jim Davis, the managing director of the regional airline REX, said he had had to make one of his star pilots an instructor.

"We've managed to recruit one instructor from outside but it's not easy. We're still looking for a chief instructor," Mr Davis said.

"We have seen an easing of recruitment of our pilots [by the big airlines]. But we're expecting it to resume