[Peetwo]

Worldwide pilot shortage heats up -

Via the Oz today:

Qantas plea for foreign pilots


12:00amAnnabel Hepworth

QantasLink is urging the government to extend the time foreign pilots can stay in Australia on work visas.

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QantasLink in plea for foreign pilots to stay for five years

Australia’s largest regional airline, QantasLink, is urging the government to extend the time foreign pilots can stay in Australia on work visas to deal with an “acute” pilot shortage and allow it to restore flights to regional communities.

Qantas’s regional arm wants the government to let it bring in a “limited number” of experienced pilots and simulator instructors from overseas for a longer time than the two years allowed under the skilled visa program.

The airline is expected to ­announce today it wants to recruit as many as 75 senior pilots and simulator instructors from overseas in the first year, and up to 55 a year after that, over the next five years.

Amid a worldwide scramble to hire pilots, the government has allowed foreign pilots into Australia on two-year visas for regional air routes.

But QantasLink argues this does not go far enough because experienced flyers do not want to move themselves and their families to Australia for less than five years. Instead, the airline wants to be able to bring the foreign ­pilots and simulator instructors in for up to five years.

The plan could face resistance from pilots unions that have previously called for a review of the use of foreign pilots in regional areas.

Late last year, amid frustration in regional communities about a spike in cancellations, QantasLink cut the number of flights it operates because of “pilot resourcing issues”.

Although the airline put larger aircraft from capital-city routes onto some regional routes, the average capacity is down 8 per cent across the regional markets in Queensland and NSW that are served by turbo­props and Boeing 717s.

The airline would be likely to look for aviators in South Africa, Canada, the US and Britain, which have the most pilots who can fly the Bombardier Dash 8 turboprop aircraft that forms the backbone of the QantasLink fleet.

“We know how important air transport is to regional communities, so we’re doing all we can to restore capacity and frequency,” said QantasLink chief executive John Gissing.

“The quality of pilots who fly for us is crucial and we’ll never compromise on safety. Our focus has always been to recruit Australian-based pilots, and that hasn’t changed. But the current skills shortage means we have to go overseas to find the trainers we need to keep bringing local pilots back into QantasLink.”

The airline will argue the plan would allow it to restore capacity until other measures aimed at addressing the pilot shortage took effect, such as Qantas’s plan for a pilot academy to open next year. It is expected many of the up to 100 pilots a year initially trained at the academy each year would join QantasLink.

Overseas airlines have been poaching experienced Australian pilots, particularly as China’s aviation sector booms. While regional airlines have been able to recruit from general aviation in previous shortages, that sector has been shrinking.

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Sandy comment - Before the life was crushed out of Australian General Aviation (GA) by the (Un) Civil Aviation Safety Authority there were way more aspiring airline pilots than positions available. 


Since 1988 when the Minister virtually relinquished responsibility by creating CASA as an independent Commonwealth corporate CASA has slowly rung the neck of what used to be a busy GA industry, especially in training. 

Where there were flying schools everywhere, now down to a handful. 

In the US some 70% of pilots are trained by independent instructors. Not allowed in Bureacratalia, one senior instructor near me was forced to put up $8000 just to lodge an application for a flying school licence, 18 months ago still no licence. 

Until Parliament actually does some governing in this area, the fee gouging and costly mismanagement will continue including the make work aviation rules rewrite 30 years on and still not finished. Alex in the Rises.

MTF...P2