While it may not be news to anyone in the industry, the national press is finally picking up on a story that has been brewing for over a year. During last week’s Regional Airline Association meeting ABC World News Tonight Correspondent Lisa Stark said it is an issue she is closely watching because it could mean there will not be enough experience in the regional pilot corps to stave off safety problems. National Public Radio and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram are the latest to tell us that pilots have migrated en masse to the majors and regionals are turning to ab-initio schools, such as the University of North Dakota. What worries many is the fact that they are poaching flight instructors which hampers any progress in providing more pilots in the pipeline.
For the top regionals, who seem to have the problem in hand, according to investor conference calls, the problem is not so acute, but for others it is worse and if one were to believe the disgruntled pilot’s postings on the web, Trans States is feeling the heat.
Even so, the problem has increased safety focus on regional training, a concern which first arose at last spring’s National Transportation Safety Board runway incursion conference and then raised with great publicity during the Air Line Pilots Association’s safety forum last summer. Related Story Now reporters are focusing on the usual – the youth of regional pilots as well as the dilution of hiring requirements although the Star-Telegram noted that regionals have beefed up training and required younger pilots to fly longer with veterans. RAA President Roger Cohen told the newspaper part of the problem is the fact that glamour is no longer a draw given bankruptcies that decreased pay and work rules. In addition, the military has become more competitive allowing it to keep more pilots at the same time that business and cargo aviation is booming.
"Anyone who raises safety as an issue has some other agenda," Cohen told the Star-Telegram, adding that half of all flights are operated by regionals. The newspaper quoted Air Inc as reporting that 14 of the 21 regionals it tracks reduced requirements. AIR Inc President Kit Darby said that Trans States lowered its requirement to 250 total hours last summer before raising it to 500. Meanwhile, American Eagle has cut its minimum flight hours to 500. The newspaper suggested regional pilots have to be more skilled because they fly into smaller airports which is a much more hostile operating environment. But is also pegged the beginning of the shortage several years ago which would put it before 9/11. But regionals didn’t begin seeing a problem until two years ago unless the work environment was so bad that pilots hit the internet to trade horror stories.
Still, pilot shortages, training and reduced requirements must be monitored if the industry is not to return to the bad old days of the 1980s, the last time this issue was widely covered which reduced the confidence of the public in flying regionals. Even so, it was at that time that regionals reported record loads and they have been growing ever since.