A report in The Australian says that Australia’s biggest private regional carrier has warned that a looming pilot shortage will lead to more flight cancellations and help drive smaller airlines to the wall.
Regional Express said yesterday that Australia was facing a pilot shortage that would turn into a crisis for regional carriers in as little as 12months as demand for staff by bigger carriers intensified.
The regional carrier estimates Australia will need an additional 1800 pilots over the next two years but is likely to train less than half that.
It warned that this could result in some regional centres losing their air services, problems for emergency services such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and more smaller airlines going to the wall.
Rex chief of staff Jim Davis said some airlines were already struggling to find enough pilots to crew their regular schedules and were being forced to cancel flights.
Mr Davis pointed to Transport Department statistics showing that Rex cancelled 0.9 per cent of its flightsfor July, while Qantas cancelled 1.6 per cent, Qantaslink 1 per cent, Virgin Blue 1.1 per cent and Jetstar 0.3per cent.
“The Rex cancellation rate, for example, is now running at four times historical levels,” he said.
But he said the situation was expected to get far worse, and carriers in regional areas would bear the brunt of the problem as major airlines intensified their raids for staff.
The smaller operators had no defence against such massive recruitment and were in no position to match the salaries and conditions of their bigger counterparts.
“Over the last three months, more than 20 per cent of our pilots have been poached by Virgin, Jetstar and Qantas and I am sure the situation is similar or worse in other regional carriers,” Mr Davis said.
“It is almost too late to avert some of the disastrous consequences in Australia of the looming pilot shortage, as it takes at least eight months to train a new pilot.”
Rex has moved to address the shortage by starting up a cadet scheme that will train 40 people a year and Mr Davis yesterday called on the federal Government to subsidise training for young aviators.
Training for a commercial licence costs about $80,000 and airline chief pilots have identified this as a major impediment to recruitment.
Qantas has also moved to revamp its pilot training and encourage more young people into the industry, while Transport Minister Mark Vaile has ordered a report on the issue and has been talking to ministerial colleagues about including pilot training in HECS.
Report by The Mole
