As international travel lurches back to life, strains include a shortage of pilots, which airlines are trying all sorts of tactics to address.
New planes are being eagerly sought as well, as evidenced by massive Airbus orders, one placed by Qantas and another more recently by China’s largest flight operators, including China Southern and China Eastern Airlines, as well as Air China. The Chinese trio will buy 292 Airbus-made A320neo jets worth USD37.3 billion, the biggest-ever plane order for the three.
Airlines can order new planes, but pilots are a different matter. Pilots are in short supply, many having switched to other jobs during the pandemic (including driving Sydney buses, in the case of some Qantas pilots). They may need to re-certify to fly various airline types.
In some cases, flight schools closed due to lack of demand as Covid hit the industry. New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association president, Captain Andrew Ridling, spoke yesterday of an international shortage of pilots and warned that overseas airlines were actively trying to recruit Kiwi pilots.
The US is facing similar shortages. A controversial proposal there for dealing with it entails raising the retirement age for pilots, a prospect greeted with alarm by passengers and pilots alike.
The Allied Pilots Association (APA), representing the 14,000 pilots of American Airlines, has spoken out against changing the mandatory retirement age for professional airline pilots.
Legislation is reportedly being drafted to change the retirement age of US pilots from 65 to 68. US Congress raised the retirement age from 60 to 65 in 2007 to align with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards.
Raising pilot retirement age would introduce additional risk into commercial aviation, APA president, Captain Eric Ferguson, has warned.
“According to numerous studies, cognitive abilities decline with increasing age,” he said.
“Flying longer would also result in prolonged exposure to solar radiation and the debilitating effects of circadian rhythm disruption. In addition, as we age, we become more susceptible to other health problems such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.”
Ferguson added: “It’s not at all clear that raising pilot retirement age would actually increase the pilot supply.
“Moreover, while it might not be less safe, ‘might not’ must never be a rationale on which to base safety-sensitive decisions in our industry.
“Further, it would likely create additional instability in airline schedules by displacing pilots age 65 and older from international routes due to ICAO’s age 65 limit for international flying. Pilots age 65 and older would then be assigned to domestic-only flying, in turn displacing less senior pilots from those routes.
“Airlines would also be faced with significantly more training cycles,” Ferguson said.
He denied that there was any real shortage of qualified pilots.
“FAA records indicate that nearly 16,000 new airline transport pilot licences were issued between 2019 and 2021. During that same time, approximately 9600 pilots retired, leaving a surplus of several thousand pilots.
“Raising pilot retirement age is ill-advised on multiple fronts, and we urge lawmakers to direct their focus elsewhere.”
Founded in 1963, the Allied Pilots Association – the largest independent pilots’ union in the US – is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. APA represents the 14,000 pilots of American Airlines, including several hundred pilots on full-time military leave of absence serving in the US armed forces.
Written by Peter Needham
