Page 10 - AA 2018_11

Well played

NOTAM
GERARD FRAWLEY
Qantas and its new pilot training academies

s there a pilot shortage? carefully, and there is undoubtedly a There are bound to be benefits
It’s a question that seems to thorough cost-benefit analysis behind from consistency of training, too –
confront the aviation industry with the decision. If a pilot shortage is, cadet pilots trained from day one to
Isemi-regularity every decade or so. after all, a simple question of supply Qantas’s standards and procedures
And in the past while there have been and demand, why not just increase will be able to move more seamlessly
cyclical pressures on pilot numbers, pilot pay, to better retain existing up the ranks between aircraft types
invariably the airline industry, at pilots and entice new pilots to self and airline operating divisions, than a
least in Australia and New Zealand, fund themselves into the industry, pilot trained externally. This, after-
could rely upon the next economic rather than going to the expense of all, is a key reason why the ADF so
downturn, with the consequent effect investing in, and running, a pilot carefully screens and trains its own
‘Qantas can on pilot recruitment and global pilot training academy? pilots.
So there are sound business
I haven’t seen Qantas’s business
demand, to ease that pressure. It
trade off its wasn’t all that long ago, after all, that case for the pilot academies, but continuity and operational benefits for
setting up a pilot academy.
Qantas had its last pilot recruitment
I’m sure there were multiple
But Qantas Group CEO Alan
– deserved – freeze in place. considerations that led to establishing Joyce has also highlighted the pilot
But, as they say, follow the money,
pilot training academies being seen
reputation for and the money now being invested as more cost-effective than just academies’ potential to train pilots
for other airlines as well as for the
increasing pilot pay. (Although that
in pilot training in Australia is not
pilot training.’ insignificant, especially the $20 may well still prove necessary.) Qantas Group, noting, on more than
one occasion, that Boeing forecasts a
Foremost of those considerations
million Qantas is now dropping on
its two new pilot training academies. would have been assuring a global need for 790,000 airline pilots
That suggests that there most consistency of supply of new pilots, over the next 20 years.
definitely is, and will be for the especially into the QantasLink That potential suggests the Qantas
foreseeable future, a pilot shortage. regional operation and into Jetstar. pilot academies could generate
That $20 million sum is a pretty There has been a big trickle-down substantial revenue and may well be
small figure in comparison to the effect from overseas airlines recruiting profit, rather than cost centres for the
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce with US$325 million list price for a single experienced Australian pilots – when airline group.
Qantas and student pilots at the Boeing 787-9 that the academy’s the major airlines lose pilots they It’s here where the business could
September 27 announcement graduates may ultimately fly later in recruit from their regional operators, really stack up. Qantas can trade
that the first Qantas Pilot their careers. But it’s far from peanuts. and when regional operators lose off its – deserved – reputation for
Academy would be located at Qantas being Qantas, the numbers pilots they in turn recruit from the pilot training and safety excellence
Toowoomba Wellcamp. qantas would have been run on this very smaller independent regionals, who to generate substantial income from
in turn recruit from GA and flying airlines across Asia and the Middle
schools. East.
The consequence of all that is that On top of which it shores up and
QantasLink and Regional Express guarantees a long-term supply of
cancel flights due to a lack of crews, pilots trained to its exacting standards.
and a growing shortage of experienced And all that for an investment of
flight instructors across the industry. $20 million, supplemented, thank you
So having its own pilot training very much, by state government funds
academy ensures a pipeline of and concessions, and co-investment,
suitably-trained and qualified junior from the airport owner (Wellcamp for
pilots, and that likely goes a long way the first site) and Qantas’s training
to addressing the risk to business provider partner (L3 Aviation).
continuity from pilot shortages (or That $20 million could turn out to
shortages of the right kind of pilots). be a really sound investment.

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