The Causes of the Air Force’s Pilot Shortage and How to Fix It
William G. Forster
Waverly High School
According to Woody (2017) when talking about the shortage of pilots in the Air Force the Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said “ We are in a crisis. If we don’t find a way to turn this around, our ability to defend the nation is compromised.” According to Pawlyk (2017) the Secretary of the Air Force, Heather Wilson, the Air Force is in need of 2,000 pilots. This is a very large shortage because the Air Force only has about 20,000 pilots total so that is a relatively large shortfall. That means that the Air Force needs 10% more pilots than they currently have. That means there is a huge shortage in pilots and there are multiple things causing this issue. One of the main things causing the shortage of pilots in the Air Force is the hiring of pilots for commercial airlines. Recently airlines have been hiring more pilots than usual(Woody, 2017). Airlines like to hire pilots because they are well trained, they have the hours that they need, most of them are very responsible, and they have a lot of leadership skills. One reason why pilots are leaving the Air Force is because budget cuts caused less flying for pilots(Sisk, 2017). Pilots want to fly. When pilots aren’t flying they are working on other duties in the Air Force. Most pilots enjoy flying and would rather fly than be working in the office. Most pilots want to build flight hours to apply as
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
On Nov 2013, the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) awarded the contract to “modernize” its existing custom developed application Cadet Administrative Management Information System (CAMIS) II to the Solers Corporation (Solers Corporation, 2016). CAMIS was developed over several years and began to encompass support for many disparate business processes at the Academy, but primarily served as a Student Information/Management System. This modernization effort or CAMIS III was the third iteration of moving CAMIS from a legacy system to a new platform. Almost 2 years later: Mar 2016, this project ended with the government decision to discontinue the modernization effort. This was done by primarily not exercising option years and stopping funding on the modernization development line item of the contract. (Paulson, 2015) Despite modernization effort ending, the government continued to support the CAMIS III operations and support portion of the contract, as well as the legacy CAMIS II contract. This paper attempts to analyze why this software project failed, based on the personal experiences and perspectives from the overall combined team and attempts to understand why. The major reasons for failure included: gross underestimates (scope, cost, and schedule). However, there were opportunities to achieve a better outcome. These opportunities were failures by the program manager, vendor team, and management stakeholder expectations.
Kodiak Alaska based U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) flight crews work in a 4,000,000-square-mile area of responsibility (AOR) operating in some of the most challenging weather condition to protect lives. It is easy to see that these crews must have the best training and must maintain peak proficiency in order to safely execute required missions. Yet Kodiak flight crews are arguably the least proficient in the USCG. Most units in the lower 48 states have several operational Small Boat Stations within their AOR to conduct practice hoist evolutions. Air Station Kodiak has no nearby stations and only 1 training boat available 7 or 8 months a year. Ref. (a) requires that all Flight Mechanics (FM) complete 1 boat hoist within the previous 90 days to
No major organizational changes to the Department of Defense will have to be made in order to fulfill the President’s memorandum. Although there will not be major changes, there will be interdepartmental streamlining in order to eliminate redundant positions and programs. The current structure of the DoD continues to operate the way that it should, and although the president and strategy may have changed the DoD will continue to operate with the current structure. The Department will also continue to contract numerous agencies and contractors to complete specific functions of the DoD.
Having the proper number of Airmen is one of the major keys for success for the Air Force. The Air Force has to release Airmen each time Congress makes a budget cut for the Air Force. Just last year there was a propose in AirForceTimes stating “Air Force may cut 10,000 airmen if budget cuts return.” These 10,00 airmen are vital for the Air Force mission. This only adds a toll on those that don’t get kicked out of the Air Force. Many Airmen state to be tired according to special report by Fox News Politics. Many of the active airmen are tired of working long shifts and deploying several times in a short amount of time. They are not getting quality time with their families which only adds more stress upon our airmen. A solution I would propose is to present this issue to Congress. Show evidence to Congress that we need the funds in order to maintain the best Air Force in the world. Brining in the funds will allow for more airmen to stay and to allow new airmen to relieve the stress and over work the airmen were doing. After 25 years of non-stop deployments to the Middle East, airmen are tired. “Our retention rates are pretty low. Airmen are tired and burnt out,” said Staff Sgt. Tyler Miller, with the 28thAircraft Maintenance Squadron based at Ellsworth. Expanding the work force of the Air Force will only allow for room for new airmen and better work quality from our
There is a shortage in airline pilots which has caused delays long layovers, and late arrivals. This is in part due to the cost of becoming a pilot. Both government regulations and cost to the private individual and public option has choked the ability for individual to start on the journey of aviation. Garvey (2016) from the American pilot association also list these and other contributors in Aviation Week & Space Technology, p15-15. 1p. (Pilot Population—Commercial and Private—Dwindling) DUNS Number: 003251972
While the demand of healthcare need increasers the United States facing a physician shortage. In recent years the number of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) has significantly increased and they are taking the part in providing healthcare cervices to the majority of patients. I believe nurse practitioners and physician assistants can practice independently from doctors and be free of oversight. Expanding the scope of NPs and PAs is essential to overcome the healthcare crisis we are facing; it will increase patient satisfaction and stabilizing the healthcare economy.
The Air Force’s guard and reserve component is an efficient way the military has found value and still accomplish the mission.1 The Air Force Guard/Reserve components provide 35-40 percent operational force while only costing tax payers seven percent of the Department of Defense budget.2 According to Lt. Gen Harry Wyatt, director or the Air National Guard, with the proper disbursement of scarce defense dollars, the National Guard is an investment with a very high return.3 “The Air Guard provides a trained, disciplined and ready force for a fraction of the cost,” Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt, director of the Air National Guard, said during the March congressional hearing on the National Guard’s 2012 budget. “The Air National Guard savings are due to our part-time business model. Approximately 70 percent of our Guard airman are traditional part-time professionals, meaning that they are only paid when serving or on active duty for training.”4 The Air Force can scale up with the Guard/Reserve and decrease recruiting and retention measures for the active duty
Pilots in the U.S. Air Force are known widely as the best of the best, in the air and on the ground, and on soil both domestic and foreign. These professionals have gone through extensive training, both physically and mentally, to ensure their effectiveness as the most skilled pilots with the world, for example: being able to push their planes or helicopters to the limit in wartime scenarios and not get killed, deliver supplies to soldiers or civilians in need, and even transporting wounded off of a battlefield.
It is known that Canada will be faced with a labour shortage by 2030 and there are quite a few reasons behind this issue. The aging of the baby-boom generation is limiting the labour force growth and to make things worse, there are low fertility rates. Lower birth rates and the aging population indicate that there will be an issue filling these labour gaps. The baby boomers are retiring and there are not enough youth to take over their positions in the labour force. Due to the retiring of these workers, careers such as air pilots, flight engineers and flying instructors will face this shortage. These labour shortages will continue to become more severe as the number of retirees grow and the number of youth decline. Another contributing
Who needs who - would be the basis of any greater power. In this case, does the airline need the pilot or is it the other way around – do the pilots need the airline. Unlike other organizations or industries, the Aviation industry’s specific jobs depend on hiring worker’s with specific and high experience. With that being said, any industry
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
The hundreds of hours of flight time required to be a pilot come with a hefty price, so anyone who is a pilot has surely proven their passion and persistence for flying. However, it’s a wonder that this same dedication doesn’t follow through for some once they’ve landed a job with a major carrier and I think it may be because the path is often so strenuous that getting a job itself is treated as the goal, when it actually is a stepping stone to really being a pilot.
Internal Weaknesses: The biggest internal weakness for airlines is pricing. Because there are a variety of different airline qualities and a variety of different types of seats and add-ons you can purchase, the price of a flight can vary widely. Many people look to save the most money, which makes it challenging for the more expensive airlines. Another weakness is location. Because the whole point of airlines is to travel all over the world, you have to factor in the number of people involved in the industry, including but not limited to pilots, flight attendants, baggage carriers, TSA agents, the people monitoring the flights from the airport towers, the airplane maintenance crew, the air marshalls, etc. Given the constant nature of flight travel, dealing with a short notice employee absence, especially in the case of a pilot, can be difficult.
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