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Wednesday 14 November 2012

Many Airlines Face Worst Pilot Shortage in Decades




Air travel can be torturous enough as it is—with delays, cancellations, lost luggage and expensive tickets—but experts warn that another problem looms on the horizon, threatening to further complicate the commercial airline experience: a pilot shortage. According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. airlines are on track to run out of pilots in the near future and are facing the most serious scarcity of trained aviators since the 1960s.

The paper reports that more than half of American pilots are over age 50, and there is a dearth of qualified candidates to fill the cockpits that will be left empty when they retire. The mandatory retirement age for pilots is 65 years old (extended from 60 in 2007), meaning that thousands are expected to leave their careers with no one to replace them, the Journal notes. While the profession saw a boom in new hires in the 1980s, significantly fewer have been hired in the last 10 years, thanks to a combination of tighter regulations, pay cuts and general economic turmoil.

New rules going into effect next summer, based on recommendations from the Federal Aviation Administration, mandate that all newly hired pilots have at least 1,500 hours of flying experience. Captains are already held to this standard, but co-pilots currently only need 250 hours, the New York Times reports — making this the first increase in the co-pilot requirement since 1973.


American Plans to Hire 2,500 Pilots















Airline SAS has no room for negotiation on cuts - CEO
Reuters
COPENHAGEN/OSLO Nov 13 (Reuters) - Crisis-hit Scandinavian airline SAS has no room to cut a deal with unions to ease the pain of pay cuts and job losses as it fights for survival, its chief executive said on Tuesday. SAS, which has not made a full-year ...
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The effect for British travellers of Spain's national airline making deep cuts
The Independent
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The Independent
Emirates says Qantas on right path
Herald Sun
QANTAS will be vindicated within three years for its massive jobs cuts, withdrawal from loss-making routes and deferred aircraft orders, the flying kangaroo's new partner airline says. Emirates chief executive Tim Clark said he supported the shake-up ...
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Spending Cuts and Tax Hikes continue, Protests in Southern Europe
MINA
Portugal's economy is expected to contract by 3 percent. Every week seems to bring fresh job cuts. Spain's flagship airline Iberia, owned by UK-based International Airlines Group, said last week it willcut 4,500 jobs. The prestigious El Pais newspaper ...
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Bears, budgets, airline emissions, farmers top Congress to-do list
The Detroit News
Looming large in the lame-duck session is the urgent need for President Barack Obama and Congress to figure out how to avoid the double economic hit of tax increases and automatic spendingcuts to defense and domestic programs that kick in after Jan. 1 ...
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Airlines Face Worst Pilot Shortage in Decades
TIME
In 2009, Captain Chesley Sullenberger, who famously landed a U.S. Airways Airbus on the Hudson River, told the House Aviation Subcommittee that pay cuts were deterring talented pilots from pursuing the career. Foreign carriers have become more ...
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