Regional Airlines, Professionalism, and “Flying Cheap”

The state of the regional airline:

The regional airlines for many pilots today are a stepping stone towards the major airlines. Regional airlines hire pilots at the minimum Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) hour requirements of 1500 hours, or 1000 hours for graduates of university flight schools. Regional pilot pay has increased as the pressure of the pilot shortage has grown. Many regionals offer large bonuses for completion of a full year of employment to compensate for the lesser pay that regional pilots receive in comparison to the major airlines. Regionals also offer pilots relatively quick upgrades to captain, because the turnover of more senior pilots to the majors is so frequent.

In referencing the pilot shortage, industry trends show that a shortage exists. Mandatory retirements at age 65 are increasing, and the number of commercial pilot certificates issued by the FAA annually is very low in comparison. Ostrower in his article for CNN said,

“In the next 20 years, airlines in North America are going to need 117,000 new pilots, Boeing estimates. And the farm team for training and recruitment in the U.S. -- the military and regional carriers -- are already struggling to find and keep aviators.”

Pay increases can very likely help to alleviate the pilot shortage. Historically, the pilot career has been very difficult to enter because of the high costs of training, the low pay at entry-level positions (such as regionals), and the slow rate of progression. Jeff Freidrich in his article “How We Ruined Airline Jobs” says, “We made the pilot occupation so unattractive, so tenuous and poorly paid, that people stopped wanting to do it”. The more highly paid pilots are, the more prospective pilot will want to fly. Ostrower made note in his article for CNN,

“Rather than change any standards to bolster recruitment, pilot’s unions have pushed for higher wages for existing pilots to increase the economic attractiveness of the profession.”

The more highly paid that pilots are, the more likely prospective pilots are to be willing to invest all of the money needed for training. A comparison to another industry would be if a medical student got through medical school, but then was stuck as a low salary resident for ten years, and they couldn’t work at a hospital near their home, they had to relocate to a hospital in another state that wasn’t as desirable. In this scenario, being a doctor would be much less viable.

The 1500-hour rule’s effects on regional airline hiring:

The 1500-hour rule severely limits the depth of the hiring pool for regional airlines. When commercial pilot training can be completed at 250 hours, there is a 1250 hour gap that aspiring regional airline pilots have to bridge in order to be eligible. This gap leads to shortages of qualified candidates for the regional airlines. Many pilots go on to earn their flight instructor certificate(s), at cost, to work as a flight instructor while they build time towards the 1500. Alternatives are to fly cargo or charter and work towards the 1500. A possible solution for the regionals could be to partner with cargo and charter companies and enact a flow-through program into the region once pilots get to the 1500.

My very best definition of professionalism:

Professionalism is a combination of appearance, attitude, and manner of conduct that acts, positively or negatively, to externally convey the impression of qualification and competency in regard to a position.

Lack of professionalism in “Flying Cheap”:

In “Flying Cheap”, two examples of a lack of professionalism would be the airline captain’s falsification of a weight manifest to make the flight appear to be within the weight and balance envelope, and the conversation the young Colgan pilot had with management when they tried persuading him to take a flight when fatigued and offered to falsify his duty records.  

Pay as a factor in the lack of professionalism in “Flying Cheap”:

Regional pilot pay being based solely on when the pilot is actively flying seemed like a contributing factor, but the examples of unprofessionalism that I previously mentioned were examples from management and a captain, so pay does not seem like the biggest contributing factor. The company culture at Colgan and greed appeared to be the biggest contributing factors in the documentary.

Two ways in which I plan to expand my professionalism throughout my aviation career:

-I plan to pursue my flight instructor certificates after I’m actively flying professionally as a way to pursue continuing education and better myself as a pilot.

-I also plan to join and participate actively in as many pilot organizations as I can to further my exposure in aviation. I’ve looked at NAFI, I definitely want an AOPA lifetime membership, and I plan to join ALPA as well.

Friedrich, J. (7 September 2017). How we ruined airline jobs. Slate. Retrieved from

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/metropolis/2017/09/how_we_ruined_airline_jobs.html

Ostrower, J. (31 July 2017). The U.S. will face a staggering shortage of pilots. CNN

Money. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/27/news/companies/pilot-shortage-figures/index.html