[Peetwo]

RAAA concern for senior pilot shortage?

Via the Oz yesterday: 

Too much room at top


ELIAS VISONTAY

As a global pilot shortage intensifies, Australian airlines are investing in aviation training to limit the drain of local experience and flight cancellations.

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As the latest wave of global pilot shortages intensifies, Australian airlines are investing in aviation training to curb the drain of local experience and flight cancellations that have plagued domestic air travel over recently.

Scarcity of senior pilots in the past two years has in part been driven by new airlines and routes popping up, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, to respond to growing demand for international air travel, with the appetite for experienced foreign aviators such as Australia’s difficult to fill.

With a positive image for local pilots generated by well-respected airlines, training schools and Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority regulator, the surge in demand from new foreign airlines for well-trained fliers has particularly hit the Australian industry.

Attractive salaries, sometimes more than double the $280,000 that top Australian carriers pay, together with lower income-tax rates, are among the factors luring senior pilots from Qantas and Virgin to overseas, with those airlines themselves then looking to regional carriers and even flight-school educators to fill their cockpits.

“Whenever international airlines, particularly in Asia, recruit there’s an uptake of senior Australian pilots,” says Mike Higgins, president of the Regional Aviation Association of Australia.

While Higgins says pilot shortages are cyclic and are expected in the industry about every six years, the current shortage is more severe because “a number of international airlines have had an increase in their business operations”.

“Basically every pilot wants to fly bigger and bigger aircraft as it’s a rise in their career. The bigger the plane, the more seats and passengers, and the more money they can earn.”

Higgins says pilots moving ­between airlines at the same time is also more noticeable during the transition period, as commercial pilots — who only ever fly one particular model of plane during each phase of their career — must retrain for the larger aircraft they’re moving into in their new jobs.

One of the RAAA’s 34 member-airlines, Regional Express (Rex) last year said it was reducing the frequency of some its regional routes because of a pilot shortage.

The airline has also experienced more flight cancellations since the pilot shortage began, ­rising from 0.3 per cent of its flights in the year 2014-15 to 1.3 per cent in 2017-18. In December 2018, the cancellation rate was 1.5 per cent.

In an open letter last year in July, Rex chief operating officer Neville Howell wrote that pilot shortages meant “any last-minute sick leave may result in flights being cancelled or combined with other routes”.

He also said that regional aviation was the hardest hit by the global shortage, and accused Qantas and Virgin of “rapacious plundering” of Rex’s pilot pool

Howell also urged other major airlines to proactively invest in pilot-training initiatives, mentioning the $35 million Rex has spent on its pilot academy.

Last September, Qantas announced that Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport west of Brisbane would be the location for one of two planned regional facilities to train up to 500 pilots per year. But the facilities will not just train local pilots, because the airline sees its investment in pilot training as a potential revenue raiser.

“We will not need 500 pilots a year, so a significant amount of them will be for other airlines and overseas training, and we know that Australia does well in academia in that space,” Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said at the announcement for the Toowoomba facility.

“You ask all the universities — they make decent money on foreign students and we’re not going to be any different,” Joyce said.

While there are about 30,000 ­licensed pilots in Australia, the president of the Australian and International Pilots Association, Mark Sedgwick, says the number of pilot licence-holders has been somewhat steady over the past five years.

Those numbers may need to ­increase, with Boeing last year predicting the world will need 790,000 new pilots in the next 20 years to cope with rapidly growing numbers of air passengers.

That growth — estimated to double to eight billion passengers annually — will largely comprise middle-class travellers from developing nations.

In Australia, the majority of pilot training takes place at metropolitan airports — all of which were privatised between 1998 and 2003 — and these facilities rely heavily on foreign students.

At Melbourne’s suburban Moorabbin Airport, in which the Chinese government owns a 10 per cent stake, 18 flight training schools operate, with the majority of the roughly 30 per cent of foreign students from China.

At Jandakot Airport in Perth, China Southern Airlines operates a flight school, with interest in the airport from other Asian operators. The issue of foreign-owned flight schools was raised at a recent public hearing of the Senate committee for rural and regional affairs and transport.

Lee Schofield, managing director of Alliance Airlines, a fly-in, fly-out charter operator, says increased regulation and foreign schools have made it harder to increase local pilot graduates.

“In the pilot-training area, it's been an absolute disaster. There's a lot fewer pilot-training centres in Australia than there used to be,’’ Schofield says.

“Most of them are foreign-owned and only train pilots for their own operations, so the number of training establishments has shrunk considerably.”

However, flight schools are also suffering from the current pilot shortage, with the RAAA’s Higgins telling The Australian that supposed ‘‘poaching’’ from larger airlines can mean there are not enough aviation educators for training facilities.

“There are enough pilots out there for the bigger airlines’ demand, [but] there aren’t enough senior pilots to train and mentor the next generation,” he says.

A CASA spokesman says air travel growth in Asia has been a boon for training in Australia.

“[Training students from Asia] is pretty much all they do at ­regional flight centres. The students are coming in and doing training, and go straight back. They never actually show up in our airlines,” he says.

CASA says despite pilots rising to more senior roles earlier in their careers, safety requirements have not been lowered to allow less experienced pilots to fly larger aircraft. “There’s no evidence of any safety complications. Obviously pilot experience is important, but pilots can build up hours in smaller aircraft,” the spokesman says.

MTF...P2 

[Peetwo]

From that man 'Iggins, via the Oz:

AUGUST  27, 2019.

Subsidies put remote towns on flight path

By EAN HIGGINS



Some of the most remote and drought-ravaged towns in northwestern NSW will soon have regular air services restored for the first time in more than a decade.

Among other benefits, the move will get better access to medical services for those in remote communities, where health workers say depression is a rising problem as a collapse in agricultural production hits local economies.

Local councils are hoping the restoration of air services to Sydney will also encourage a boost in tourism in some iconic outback towns.

Minister for Western NSW Adam Marshall on Tuesday announced a deal in which the state government will subsidise thecost of air tickets to make it profitable for FlyPelican and Airlink to operate 26 new services each week, linking Bourke, Cobar, Walgett and Lightning Ridge to Dubbo, and Cobar to Sydney.

The NSW Government provided $8 million to ensure routes remain sustainable, Mr Marshall said, and they will start next month.

“It’s been 12 long years since passenger flights last touched down in Walgett and Bourke, which is far too long,” Mr Marshall said.

“Better access to air services means improved opportunities for people to travel to other parts of the state to be with loved ones and access jobs, education and healthcare.”

Dr Sanjay Jamwal, one of two general practitioners at the Cobar Primary Health Centre, said the resumption of flights wouldmake a significant difference to his patients, who could travel to Sydney or Dubbo for specialist treatment by air, or betreated in Cobar by visiting specialists who could fly in for the day.

Dr Jamwal said he had observed an increase in emotional and mental stress in his patients as the drought intensified.

“With any economic downturn or depression, it brings a push towards mental disorder,” Dr Jamwal told The Australian.

“At least you can do something to take off a bit of pressure from travelling for medical services,” he said.

The initiative will restore direct flights from Sydney to Cobar, and also from Dubbo to Cobar, and links from Dubbo to the other towns.

At present, to get to Sydney from Cobar requires a four-hour drive to Dubbo to get on a one hour flight.

Deputy Premier John Barilaro spoke of tourism potential.

“If you are sitting in Sydney making plans for the weekend, there is nothing stopping you from getting on a plane and exploring Outback NSW,” Mr Barilaro said.

“These air services will carry over 14,000 seats a year to the Far West meaning tourists can roam the opal fields in Lightening Ridge, have lunch at the Port of Bourke Hotel on the Darling River or visit the historic mining town of Cobar, in a matterof hours.”

FlyPelican will operate from its fleet of Jetstream 32 aircraft, seating up to 19 passengers and two pilots for round tripsbetween Cobar and Dubbo, and Cobar and Sydney.

Air Link services will fly seven-passenger seat Chieftain aircraft on round trips between Dubbo and Bourke, Dubbo and Walgett, and Walgett and Lightning Ridge.

MTF...P2 

[thorn bird]

Aint it passing strange?

Forty years ago there were "Commuter" aircraft operating profit making air services all over the place in NSW.
As time went by they all disappeared, suffocated by over-regulation.

Now we see politically, well golly gee, we really do need to have air services after all, connecting the bush to the cities.

The solution? instead of reforming our regulations and cutting red tape, we subsidise, by creating another monopoly to suck up taxpayer dollars like a Dyson value cleaner.

In affect all the "subsidies" do is cover the costs imposed by un-alected, unaccountable bureaucrats.

Wonder how many Aldi plastic bags that took?

[Peetwo]

RAAA claws back some credibility -   

Via the Yaffa:

RAAA publishes Seven-point Plan for Engineer Training

14 October 2022

The Regional Aviation Association of Australia (RAAA) today released a seven-point plan to tackle the crippling shortage of maintenance engineers in the aviation industry.

Since training for engineers changed from CAR 31 to CASR Part 66 regulations in 2011, new entrants in the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) industry have dropped significantly, which the RAAA attributes to confusion about training pathways and barriers to qualification.

RAAA CEO Steve Campbell said the paper focused on short- and long-term solutions to address engineer shortages, and that the recommendations are very achievable.

"Our hope is that our industry does not have to wait for an aviation white paper process, which will take years, before the government focuses on solutions such as the ones we are proposing," Campbell said.

“We value the white paper process to provide long term policy strategy by government, but we can’t wait to fix today’s problems, so we have decided to give the solutions on engineering skills shortages to government now.

“All aviation sectors are affected by this shortage on a daily basis; we just need to look at increasing flight delays and flight cancelations.

"Our regional areas are particularly affected, remote communities and businesses could lose access to basic air services which are vital for connectivity, medical and mail services."

In the seven-point plan, the RAAA calls on the government to:

• recognise international LAME licences
  
• educate and support LAMEs
  
• create pathways for experience engineers to return
  
• remove challenges with the Diploma in Aeroskills exams
  
• issue LAME licences with exclusions
  
• create incentives to employ apprentices
  
• align theory training and create a national aviation academy.
  

Report author Sheridan Austin from Aviation QMS said she consulted with people experienced in the MRO industry to understand the root issues and put forward relieving measures.

“During my career in the aircraft engineering sector, I have seen a rapid decline in the number of aircraft engineers becoming qualified each year," Austin said. "Since 2016, we have seen an average of 135 aircraft engineer licences being issued, as opposed to an average of 297 in each of the 10 years prior.This does not even keep up with the attrition rate.

“There is a myriad of reasons behind this decline but what is apparent is that we need to ‘grow our own’ engineers for long-term stability, but we need skilled migration of experienced engineers as soon as possible with immediate recognition of those skills by our regulator CASA. 

"Education is key for the longevity of the sector as well. The aviation industry must work with government to promote aircraft engineering as an exciting and rewarding career.

“We also need to align the training of apprentices so that they are educated and funded under a national framework, rather than under the current state and territory models.

"To help develop the training capacity required to build an innovation-oriented aircraft maintenance workforce, and to ensure that maintenance training makes a significant contribution to Australia’s education exports, a National Aerospace/Aviation College (NAAC) should be established.

“Now that we have identified the issues, we must immediately act to secure the future of aviation."

Both the now-defunct Aviation Recovery Framework and CASA's General Aviation Workplan acknowleged engineer shortages as a critical issue that need to be resolved to ensure the ongoing viability of the aviation in Australia.

In June this year, the RAAA pleaded with the new ALP government to put LAMEs on the Priority Migration Skilled Occupations List (PMSOL), which Minister for Immigration Andrew Giles declined to do, stating that the government was working to reduce visa processing times.

"..Our hope is that our industry does not have to wait for an aviation white paper process, which will take years, before the government focuses on solutions such as the ones we are proposing.."

Hmm...wonder who has been talking to laddie Campbell to make him (all of a sudden) grow a set and see the light?? (Hint: Initials KC)     

MTF...P2 

[Sandy Reith]

Post #41 Elias Visontay article:-
“With a positive image for local pilots generated by well-respected airlines, training schools and Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority regulator,…”
should have read “…..in spite of Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority regulator,..”

For years and years the very obvious consequences of CASA’s woefully expensive and unworkable regulatory complexities have been forecast. These forecasts were ignored by CASA. Irresponsibility writ large.

CASA’s policies have wrecked havoc in the General Aviation training environment. Having lost hundreds of flying schools across the Nation ,due entirely to counterproductive regulatory overload and ever more unnecessary permissions requiring swingeing fees, what would you expect?

Just another glaring example that the CASA model of governance of aviation, Parliament giving power to an unelected and unaccountable independent corporate, has been a disastrous failure of government policy. A policy that violates the Westminster principle of Parliamentary and Ministerial responsibility.

Essentially the regulator has been distanced from the voting public, by having its operations distanced from democratic control. CASA has, predictably by degrees, seen to its own trajectory in the absence of full Ministerial control within a Department of Government.

Nothing could more exemplify the Canberra bubble of disconnection from the realities of aviation commerce, the lack of leadership from Parliament, the CASA Board and senior management is extraordinary. A pretence is sustained that all is well in spite of the evidence uncovered time and again in the never ending series of the Government’s own inquiries let alone any dispassionate examination of the facts of our GA industry if compared to its previous (pre CASA) growth profile or that of other comparable countries.

[Wombat]

…….and CASA did not discover SOAR - the dodgiest most unsafe operator in decades, but instead focuses its malevolence on Glen Buckley - a high quality innovative training organisation.

One would almost think that excellence in GA was a threat to them……

[Peetwo]

RAAA Green Paper Submission

Via the RAAA: https://raaa.com.au/wp-content/uploads/G...per-MR.pdf





Plus via Oz Flying:

GA will struggle in Low-carbon Future: RAAA

5 December 2023



General aviation will struggle to survive the transition to net-zero carbon emissions according to the Regional Aviation Association of Australia (RAAA).
The RAAA made the remarks in their submission to the Federal Government's White Paper process, citing the high cost of replacing legacy avgas-powered aircraft with new low-carbon models such as those powered by electric motors or hydrogen-electric power plants.

"On net zero goals, the RAAA’s members are ambitious but cautious, and are especially keen to learn how government will support the aviation industry through one of its most disruptive transitions," said RAAA CEO Steve Campbell.

"If we do not get this right, there is the potential to leave many organisations behind. These will be mainly from the regions, with a catastrophic flow-on effect on connectivity for regional communities.

"This is why proactive government support for this sector of the industry is critical for a successful transition to net zero for regional aviation."

The RAAA believes that general aviation is particularly vulnerable in the move to net-zero, given the pressures already being applied to the industry.

"GA is being squeezed by the GA airports looking to non-aviation assets for improving their own profit margins," the submission states.

"In the face of these major business pressures, we are now asking them to upgrade their fleets and meet net zero targets. For some this will be unachievable, and we will see hangar doors closing.

"The most likely avenue for GA to meet net zero will be via electric aircraft; however, the capital outlay for these aircraft will be considerable, and their endurance limitations make them untenable in the very near future.

"Support for the capital outlay in asset financing or even tax write-offs is essential."

To combat the threats to GA, the RAAA made three recommendations in their submission.

• Ensure airports provide lease opportunities at appropriate costs
  
• Ensure CASA acts on their sector risk profiles and reduces red tape for GA
  
• Provide funding assistance (or other financial incentives) to modernise fleets to meet net zero targets.
  

"Unless these three areas are acted on, GA will struggle to survive as it is," the submission states. "Flight training will be limited to major airline or university schools and recreational flying will be limited solely to RAAus aircraft."

The RAAA submission also focused on LAME shortages and the unchecked movement of pilots from regional airlines to the major airlines, resulting in a shortage of flight crew at regional airlines.

The full submission is on the RAAA website.

MTF...P2 

[Peetwo]

The CASA v RAAA deckchair swap is complete...

Via LMH:

Rob Walker new CEO at RAAA

2 February 2024


Former CASA Stakeholder Engagement Manager Rob Walker will take over as CEO of the RAAA. (Steve Hitchen)

ormer CASA Executive Manager Rob Walker has been appointed CEO at the Regional Aviation Association of Australia (RAAA).
Walker's appointment comes after previous CEO Steve Campbell prepares to depart the RAAA for a role as Executive Manager at CASA.

“Rob was a standout candidate, and it is great to be able to continue the positive momentum we have had under Steve's leadership for the last three years," said RAAA Chair Mal Sharp.

"Rob has a great grasp of the issues the aviation industry is facing today and the challenges ahead.

“Many of our members will be familiar with Rob from his work at the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and Airservices Australia and have appreciated his efforts in improving our regulator’s relationship with the industry.

“With our first Convention in five years just around the corner, we are very confident that Rob has the necessary experience and capability to ensure the RAAA remains the preeminent aviation association in Australia."

Walker said that he aimed to continue the good work that has made the RAAA an important cog in aviation advocacy.

“I have enjoyed many years in aviation government agencies and the opportunities to work closely with many in industry," he said. "The RAAA is a vital advocacy organisation for regional aviation to ensure that the voice of regional Australian businesses are heard in Canberra,"

“I have seen firsthand how the aviation industry is feeling the pinch on skills shortages and how important good regulations are in finding the right balance between safety and the costs of running an aviation business."

Walker will take over as CEO after Campbell departs on 7 February.

Rob Walker is well known in aviation circles through previous roles as Stakeholder Engagement Manager at both Airservices Australia and CASA.

Good luck to him, I guess?? 

MTF...P2