CaribbeanAirlineIndustryCostDriversFact and Fallacy of the Pilot Shortage. Update October 2. Caribbean Airline Industry Cost Drivers' title='Caribbean Airline Industry Cost Drivers' />A WORD OF ADVICE for aspiring aviators As discussed in the post below, U. S. regional carriers, faced with a crippling shortage of pilots, have been bending over backwards to attract new hires and to hang on to the pilots they already have. IPP is the world wide leader in providing Scheduled Airline Failure Insurance to the global travel industry. We also provide ABTA, ATOL, ABTA, BCH AITO. Images/All_TW_Art/2016/010416/T0104PILOTCHART.jpg?n=2152' alt='Caribbean Airline Industry Cost Drivers' title='Caribbean Airline Industry Cost Drivers' />Salaries have been soaring and airlines are offering retention bonuses north of 3. Its hard to see a negative in this, at least on paper, but if you talk to pilots at some of these companies youll learn that many of them are very unhappy. Why Although pilots are earning more, overall quality of life at many regionals is still suffering. And thats because things are in panic mode. The industry is being reactive when it should have been proactive. The improvements were seeing should have been put in place years ago. The latest travel information, deals, guides and reviews from USA TODAY Travel. UN News Centre Official site for daily UN news, press releases, statements, briefings and calendar of events. Includes UN radio, video, webcasts, magazines. I have to think that in many ways the pilot shortage is the first sign of the death of regional airlines. These airlines took off because they could supply passengers. Get breaking Finance news and the latest business articles from AOL. From stock market news to jobs and real estate, it can all be found here. Book a Cruise CruiseServer Search Caribbean Search Alaska. Book Online Cruise Air Hotel Car. Air France announced this week it is launching Joon, a new airline especially aimed at a young working clientele, the millennials, and more specifically the. RAih5p_c40daQ_QD0Rc4liTzg=/960x0/filters:no_upscale()/4635726563_66da02b48e_o-56a3be3e5f9b58b7d0d392ac.jpg' alt='Caribbean Airline Industry Cost Drivers' title='Caribbean Airline Industry Cost Drivers' />Because they werent, numerous airlines now face chronic understaffing issues. This results in pilots being forced to work high stress schedules with minimal time off. One pilot I spoke to, employed by a United Express carrier, says the company is so understaffed that even senior captains are being junior manned, as its called, and conscripted into duty on almost all of their scheduled days off, typically with little or no notice. Pilots are quitting in droves, he says, retention bonuses be damned. As a group, pilots have never had as much leverage or opportunity as they have right now, and with thousands of retirements coming up in the next five to ten years at the majors, it should only get better. However, there are systemic problems in the regional sector, and just throwing money around isnt going to fix them. It will take a while for things to stabilize. In the meantime, it behooves applicants to do their homework and realize what theyre getting into. Things can change quickly in this business, but some regionals are, at least for now, better staffed and all around more pleasant places to work than others. Know which are which. August 5, 2. 01. 7THE PILOT SHORTAGE is here. Its real, its global, and its been making headlines. However, we need to be clear which sectors of the aviation industry were talking about, and in which parts of the world. Lets start with North America, where the first step is to draw a sharp divide between the major carriers and their regional affiliates. The majors, also referred to as legacy carriers, are the ones people are most familiar with American, United, Delta, Southwest, Jet. Blue, et al. There is no pilot shortage at these companies, and unless something changes drastically they will continue to have a surplus of highly qualified candidates to choose from. They are able to cull from from the top ranks of the regionals, as well as from the military and corporate aviation pools. Vray 2.0 Sketchup Crack. Even amidst an ongoing wave of retirements, a steady supply of experienced crews is unlikely to be depleted. At the regionals, however, its a very different story. And by regional were referring to the numerous subcontractors who operate smaller jets regional jets, or RJs and turboprops on the majors behalf those myriad Connection and Express companies, whose actual identities are concealed beneath the liveries of whichever major they are aligned with. United Express, Delta Connection, American Eagle, and so on. These carriers have been slashing flights, grounding planes, and otherwise scrambling to keep their cockpits staffed. In June, Horizon Air, the Seattle based affiliate of Alaska Airlines and one of the countrys biggest regional carriers, announced it would be forced to reduce its busy summer schedule due to a dearth of pilots. Earlier this year, Republic Airways, a large U. S. regional carrier that flies on behalf of United, American and Delta, filed for bankruptcy protection. It blamed the filing, in part, on a lack of qualified pilots. How this came to happen is both a long and short story. The short story is that employment at a regional carrier sucks. Its not an easy lifestyle, and the pay has been the kind of thing that causes people to skip their school reunions. Salaries have traditionally started out as low as 2. Schedules are demanding and benefits paltry the relationship between management and the workers is often hostile and top of all that, the regional sector is highly unstable. Companies always seem to be coming or going, shrinking or shedding planes, changing their names and realigning with different majors. This has driven thousands of pilots out of the industry, andor has discouraged countless others from pursuing an aviation career in the first place. Yet pay and working conditions at these airlines have always been substandard, and filling jobs was seldom a problem. So what gives Well, whats different is that the regional sector has grown so large, now accounting for half of all domestic departures in the United States As recently as twenty five years ago it was around 1. In those days, pilots saw a job with a regional as a temporary inconvenience paying ones dues. It was a stepping stone toward a more lucrative position with a major. Pilots are now realizing that a job at a regional could easily mean an entire career at a regional. Thus, a diminishing number have been willing to commit the time and money to their education and training when the return on investment is somewhere between unpredictable and financially ruinous. Pilots in the United States are responsible for securing their own FAA credentials, and for logging hundreds or even thousands of hours of flight time before applying at an airline. For those who come up through the civilian channels its a slow and very expensive process. An aspiring aviator has to ask, is it worth sinking 1. For many the answer has been a resounding and logical no. Frequent travelers, get instant remote access to all your essential Windows applications files from any part of the globe on any device, with hosted virtual desktop from www. Cloud. Desktop. Online. For hosted Share. Point Service and other top notch hosted software products visit Apps. Rent. com today In the meantime, the FAA has enacted tougher hiring standards for entry level pilots. Over the past two decades, as the regional sector grew and grew, airlines sharply lowered their experience and flight time minimums to fill the thousands of new cockpit jobs this growth created. Suddenly, pilots were being taken on with as little as 3. RJs and turboprops. Then came a rash of accidents, including the Colgan Air Continental Connection disaster outside Buffalo in 2. Regulators began taking a closer look at hiring practices, eventually passing legislation that mandated higher flight time totals and additional certification requirements for new hires. Some airlines blame the shortage at least partly on these tougher rules. Technically theyre right, but arguing against an obvious safety enhancement is maybe not the smartest idea. Besides, all the new regulations really have done is return things to historical norms. When I applied for my first regional job in 1. Airline Transport Pilot certificate as well. Thats more or less what the FAA demands today. Flight time totals are just one indicator of a pilots skill or competence, but these requirements are not unreasonable. The regionals have finally started upping their salaries and improving benefits, in some cases substantially.