The Shortage Of Airline Pilots Essay

For the past ten years, pilots at Alaska Airlines have been underpaid, and now, after merging with Virgin America, pilots are protesting Alaska’s negligence. In 2005, Alaska pilots had pay cuts of 26% when the airline industry lost an estimated $7.4B (IATA, 2005) due to fuel price surges (James, Andrea, 2007). Since then, fuel prices have fallen significantly; pilots at Alaska have been paid less than those at other legacy airlines, such as Delta or United (Glassdoor, 2017). According to self-reporting surveys, Alaska Airline pilots earn on average $107,860 a year while Virgin pilots earn around $100,00 a year (Glassdoor, 2017). Compared to a legacy airline like Delta, with an average pilot salary of $137,587 per year (Glassdoor, 2017), Alaska and Virgin do not pay their pilots competitively. The merger with Virgin increased dissatisfaction with their compensation, leading to pilots at Alaska speaking out against the company, specifically through the creation of an awareness campaign “This Merger Won’t Fly” to rally against the inequitable pay (“This Merger Won’t Fly", 2017). Pilots, backed by the support of their unions, are negatively impacting flights and consumers by leveraging their salience as stakeholders. Although passengers choose airlines based on price, 87% of respondents to a survey said employee strikes will cause them to book with a different airline (see Figure III). Horizon Air, an LCC subsidiary of Alaska Air Group, has been suffering the most from the

The United States carries over one third of the globe’s total traffic, where Over 1.5 billion passengers fly annually. Over the past 20 years, air travel has grown at an average of about 5% per year, the reason for annual change is usually differences in economic growth, and of course other environmental factors, such as the current war. As a rule, the annual growth in air travel has been about twice the annual growth in GDP. Deregulation, liberalization, and competition have essentially altered the management strategies and practices of airlines. Productivity improvements and cost management have been two of the greatest concerns for US airlines for the past twenty years. As a whole, the airline industry must continue to improve their specialization in terms of fleet utilization, pricing and revenue management, and schedule optimization.

The airline industry has seen drastic changes since September 11, 2001. The government ordered a complete shutdown for three days of not only all commercial aircraft but such carriers as domestic flights and emergency aircraft. For days after September 11th, all aircraft stayed on the ground. Even military aircraft had to receive special clearance to fly. In a ripple effect, the entire economy of the United States and the world was put on hold. The New York Stock Exchange shut its doors because of the attacks on the towers of the World Trade Center.

The Airline industry has experienced continual problems with rising costs with both fuel and maintenance which has caused them to increase their fees to the consumers to pay for those rising costs. This paper will help explain what an airline such as Delta does to help alleviate such costs without forcing its consumers to flip the bill through high fees that consist of tickets, baggage fees and food. The costs of doing business in aviation today have spiraled out of control making it very expensive for both airlines and the

American airlines is a corporation that exhibits all of the characteristics of a firm in an industry where good tactical management is the key to success. This company and its regional airline partner American eagle serve almost 250 cities around the world and operate more than 3600 daily flights. Its goal is to provide safe, dependable and friendly air transportation along with related services, making a great effort to transform any experience into a positive one. All of the services that this company has and the image that they are trying to keep in every day activities make each day an inevitable challenge for its employees.

The future of the industry is in JetBlue’s “cheap chic” style. Airlines need to maintain a cost effective price point while also not appearing cheap. Small

Since the airline industry is a direct product of market conditions, it is greatly affected by all externalities. Many people noticed a decline in travel after the September 11th tragedy occurred due to safety concerns. When there is a huge increase in fares that definitely interferes with the demand for travel; it causes the price of tickets to continue to rise since a clear correlation between supply and demand exists. When the economy is doing well in terms of the employment rate, and when the dollar is strong people have the tendency to travel more (Jerram,1998).

The purpose of this study is to examine the performance of pilots flying multiple types of aircraft in an experimental setting. Pilot performance will be assessed by written tests and simulator sessions. This study will build on a previous field study, Pilots Flying Multiple Aircraft Types or Multiple Flightdeck Layouts, which was conducted for AVS 4504 Aviation Safety Analysis. The results of that study showed a need for a simulator study to further identify if pilots have issues maintaining currency in multiple types of aircraft.

To be an airline pilot is most of the time described in terms of duties, job requirements, proficiency, training, employment opportunity, and good salary. These features picture a plain profile that fit into the specification of just an ordinary career. However, an aviation career comes with many challenges than expected. When focusing on statistics about being a pilot, it indicates a lifestyle that many inspire to work despite the many challenges that face this career. The challenges that pilot face revolve around being rested during long flights, performing unexpected, simultaneous tasks, and passing the medical examination in order to remain qualified. When combined with fatigue due to long flight hours, these different aspects can

First lets understand the roots of the pilot shortage issue. Before the 1990s most pilots had military backgrounds and the natural progression once they retired from the military was to work for a major mainline airline such as American or Delta Airlines. Previously the military was much larger and the amount of pilots coming out of the military replaced the amount of pilots who reached the age of 60 (mandatory retirement age at the time). But about 15 years after the military draft ended there was an increase of pilots who started

One of the world’s most competitive and prominent industries is the airlines industry. It generates huge amounts of income as well as employment each year. Some of the common names in US air travel service providers are Alaska, Northwest, Southwest, US airways, American etc.

Airline industry is a growing and a challenging industry across the globe and it is becoming more competitive on quality, pricing and most prominently safety in the contemporary world.

2. The London based Airline could have verified their passenger list and should have identified Prof. McPherson as a Gold card member and a loyal customer and should have taken any one of these actions based on the situation:

If you have a love for the sky and aviation is one of your interests, you're not deterred from being in charge of at times more than 100 lives, and you have a soft spot for exploring the world than becoming an airline pilot is for you. Airline pilots have one of the coolest, most exciting nerve racking jobs out there. My goal for this paper is to explain all about how to become an airline pilot, what it takes to become one, the facts about the job, and some pros and cons of being in the field. My interest in flying was harbored as a child during vacations, my mother is a flight attendant so we traveled often. Whenever entering an airplane I was at awe of the sheer number of controls in the cockpit and the

“I want to be a pilot when I grow up… because it’s a fun job and easy to do. That’s why there are so many pilots flying today. Pilots don’t need much school, they must learn numbers so they can read instruments. Pilots should be brave so that they won’t be scared if it’s foggy and they can’t see, or if a wing or motor falls off they should stay calm so they’ll know what to do. Pilots have to have good eyes to see through clouds and they can’t be afraid of lightning or thunder because they’re closer to them than we are. The salary pilots make is another think I like. They make more money than they can spend. This is because most people think plane flying is dangerous except pilots don’t, because they know how easy it