MONTREAL — Air carriers needs to improve wages and benefits in order to help regain the lost appeal of an industry facing a historic shortage of skilled professionals, the head of the UN civil aviation agency said on Thursday.
A wave of retiring baby boomers and skyrocketing demand in emerging markets are creating shortages — particularly of pilots, controllers and mechanics, said Raymond Benjamin, secretary general of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Being a flight attendant or pilot no longer has the appeal that it did decades ago, he said Thursday in Montreal.
“It’s no longer the glamourous era of pilots with nice uniforms. (Now) they are people who often have second jobs.”
A recent ICAO study said that 560,000 people will need to be trained over the next 20 years, including 360,000 maintenance workers, 160,000 pilots and 40,000 aircraft controllers.
Strong aviation growth in some parts of the world is also accentuating the problem because they offer large incentives to attract workers.
“There are some places where demand is so strong that they suck up all the graduates of other countries,” he said.
The comments come as Air Canada (TSX:AC.B) has begun contract negotiations with its workers. Its various unions are seeking large wage increases to partially recover for years of few gains caused by the airline’s weak financial position.
Low wages also contribute to pilot fatigue if they take several jobs to make ends meet. Although some pilots for large planes at major airlines can earn well over, $100,000 a year, that’s not the case for pilots at small regional airlines.
The co-pilot of a deadly 2009 crash nearly Buffalo, N.Y. took a cross-country red-eye flight the night before to get to her $23 an hour or US$16,000 a-year job. Rebecca Shaw, 24, previously had a second job working in a coffee shop. The average salary for Colgan Air pilots was around US$55,000.
Benjamin said ICAO has created a working group to develop new standards and procedures to address a problem has caused numerous accidents and fatalities.
Recommendations to government could include reducing the number of hours in flight or lengthen the intervening rest times.
Benjamin doesn’t believe airlines will publicly lobby against these measures.
“An airline has no interest in being on the side of those who say that we don’t want pilots work under certain conditions because I will lose money.”
Earlier, he told the business group that the growing number of airline passengers will put extra stress on the aviation industry, a system already challenged by traffic congestion.
By 2030, the number of international passengers is expected to double to five billion per year as flights rise to more than 50 million.
The density of airline traffic will be greatest in booming Asian markets, the Middle East and Latin America.
“Greater traffic density means a heightened risk of accidents. This is what we must avoid,” he said.
Governments plan to spend some US$120 billion over a decade to modernize air navigation systems in Europe, United States and Japan.
Air carriers, airports, air navigation providers and regulators will gather at a symposium in Montreal in May 2012.
Benjamin also voiced concerns about the U.S. government’s proposal to charge passengers US$5.50 to enter the country by air or sea. He said additional fees are only justified to pay for services like security, traffic control and the environment.
“If the American tax is to assist the American budget and aviation is the target that’s from our point of view not a good way of handling problems.”