“Nothing surprises me,” says Vincent. “We were on a sugar high in 2021 and 2022, fed by essentially free money. Now with middle single-digit loan rates, we’re getting back to a more normal market.”

Adds Ron Epstein, senior equity analyst at Bank of America: “The COVID recovery was kind of a weird thing. We’re getting back to a normal [growth] trajectory pre-COVID.”

Rising interest rates haven’t yet been much of a damper on new aircraft sales, as up to 60 percent to 70 percent of purchases now are all cash or 50 percent cash down/50 percent financing. Less than one-third involve a large loan. Some buyers look at 6 percent aircraft loan rates in relation to the 8 percent returns they’re making on investments, so they’re choosing to finance aircraft purchases rather than tying up cash.

The current market cooldown is more related to supply chain snags, particularly as noted by the heads of Bombardier, Dassault, and Gulfstream. Éric Martel, Bombardier’s CEO, says fewer of the firm’s suppliers have problems, but the remaining ones have systemic issues that need remedial work. Bombardier has its own specialists embedded with key suppliers to provide support should issues arise.

Dassault chief Éric Trappier points out that supply chain issues in 2023 are worse than last year, partly from the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some materials, such as titanium, are in short supply, and European aerospace manufacturer’s energy costs have soared. In mid-July, Trappier disclosed that sales had slowed in the first half of 2023 as compared to the same period in 2022 in large part because of the war in Ukraine.

Gulfstream president Mark Burns says that while supply chains are constricted, the Savannah, Georgia, firm began reordering parts and materials two years ago, resulting in fewer challenges. Phebe Novakovic, CEO and chairman of General Dynamics, Gulfstream’s parent company, has modestly scaled back projected deliveries for 2023.

There’s an upside to supply chain snags, says Epstein, because “it prevents anybody from spoiling the party because it forces production discipline.” Simply put, manufacturers cannot flood the market with an oversupply of airplanes.

Market growth also is being constricted by aircraft certification delays. Similar to many other organizations, the FAA encouraged many employees to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several staff members have been reluctant to move back to FAA offices after experiencing the freedom and flexibility of their remote workplaces. Industry observers claim sparsely staffed FAA certification offices are creating long delays in paperwork processing.

In addition, the FAA has doubled down on its aircraft certification checks in the wake of the Boeing 737 Max debacle, delaying by several months the type certification of the Dassault Falcon 6X and Gulfstream G700 and G800, plus potentially the Beechcraft Denali in 2025.

Prospects for smaller turbofan aircraft already in production remain bright. Cirrus, for instance, delivered 90 single-engine SF50 Vision Jets in 2022, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) aircraft shipment report. Demand for the entry-level Vision Jet remains strong because it’s an easy step up from Cirrus’ piston singles, owing to its combination of docile handling, human-centered flight deck design, passenger amenities, and top-notch customer support. It’s very similar to the success that Cessna enjoyed 50 years ago when it introduced the mild-performing, twin-turbofan Citation 500 as a modest step-up product from its 300- and 400-series piston twins.

The Vision Jet is the only turbofan aircraft as of yet to offer both a standard airframe parachute system and Garmin Autoland—branded Safe Return—providing unsurpassed peace of mind to occupants. Similar to the long-term growth plan that Cessna had with its Citation500 family, Cirrus is expected to develop faster, higher, and farther-flying turbofan aircraft as follow-on products to the Vision Jet. As FLYING previously reported, Cirrus Aircraft filed for a $300 million initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to provide funds for new aircraft development and increased pro-duction capacity, among other growth goals.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Cirrus Vision Jet G2+

Deliveries in the light jet twin-turbofan market continue slowly to decline, in large part because of the steep drop in demand for Embraer Phenom 100-series aircraft, once the most popular light jet by a wide margin.

Phenom 100 deliveries soared during its first two full production years (2009-2010) for the 100, with Embraer producing nearly 200 units. The Phenom 100 completely eclipsed its archrival, the Cessna Citation CJ1+, a light jet that was $1 million more expensive and somewhat slower. The Phenom 100’s introductory price was on par with the Cessna CE-510 Mustang, but its cabin cross section was nearly as big as the Learjet 45. The Phenom 100’s tall stance and airstair door made it look even larger than its actual size, adding to its perceived value. Owner pilots also favored the Phenom 100’s Garmin G1000 avionics package over the CJ1+’s Collins Pro Line 21 system.

Three years later, Textron Aviation responded by delivering Citation M2, a CJ1 variant with more thrust, Garmin G3000 avionics, a plusher interior than the Embraer, a 40-plus-knot cruise speed advantage, 160 nm more range, and a more attractive price tag than CJ1+. Within a few years, M2 took the sales lead from Embraer in this class and it clearly has maintained it. M2 steadily is catching the Phenom 100 in total sales, with Textron now having delivered more than 340 Citation M2 jets compared to Embraer’s 400-plus Phenom 100 aircraft.

M2 deliveries also surpass those of HA-420 HondaJet, despite the latter’s having a roomier cabin, higher cruise speeds and, arguably, the quietest interior in the light jet class. The Citation, however, offers superior runway performance and a roughly $800,000 lower price.

Veteran buyers also are keen on product support, giving Textron Aviation a major competitive edge over Embraer and Honda Aircraft, according to some industry observers. Textron Aviation delivered nearly double the number of M2 jets in 2022 compared to the HondaJet, and it’s on track to preserve a similar margin in 2023. Phenom 100 comes in a distant third.

Competition in the upper end of the light jet market is far different. Three competitors, Embraer’s Phenom 300E and Textron Aviation’s Citation CJ3+ and CJ4 Gen2 face off. The Brazilian offering has compelling advantages—biggest cabin volume, lowest cabin altitude, longest range, highest cruise speed, and smallest price. Phenom 300/300E deliveries, as a result, now exceed those of CJ3+ and CJ4 Gen2 combined. The Phenom 300 also siphoned off so many Learjet 75 orders that Bombardier was compelled to shut down production. Notably, the Phenom 300 has been the best-selling light jet for more than a decade. And it’s the only light jet to be purchased by all three major fractional aircraft operators—NetJets, Flexjet, and Airshare.

The upmarket Pilatus PC-24 resides in a class of its own, straddling the boundary between light jets and midsize aircraft. Its 18,300-pound max takeoff weight, fuel efficiency, single-pilot certification, and runway performance make it competitive. Its 500-cubic-foot cabin volume, flat floor, standard autothrottles, and 400-knot block speed nudge it into the midsize niche. The right engine has a special low idle rpm ground mode that enables it to double as an APU, thereby providing heating, air conditioning, and electrical power when the aircraft is parked. The PC-24 is the only jet in either class to have a 4.2-foot high by 4.1-foot wide aft cargo door. It can use unpaved runways, just like the PC-12 NGX turboprop. That increases the number of landing facilities it can use from 10,650 to 21,000.

Textron Aviation’s Citation Ascend, the fifth-generation Citation CE-560XL, is the last remaining truly midsize class jet. Gone are Citation III/VI/VII, Hawker800, Gulfstream G150, and Learjet 60. None had the 560XL’s blend of short-field performance, cabin comfort, operating economics, and low purchase price—though it won’t reach the market until 2025.

Ascend could be the last member of the venerable CE-560XL family, a placeholder to buy time for Textron Aviation to develop a clean-sheet replacement aircraft with more speed, more range, and more cabin volume. At nearly $17 million, Ascend’s price point puts it close to the $18 million Embraer Praetor 500, a super-mid-size aircraft with 70 percent more range, 40 to 70 knots more speed, and half again more cabin volume.

• READ MORE: Citation Ascend Mock-Up to Debut at NBAA

The Praetor 500 can fly nonstop between almost any two U.S. continental coastal cities at Mach 0.80 against winter winds. It has the lowest cabin altitude in its class, 5,800 inside while cruising at 45,000 feet. It boasts full-tanks, full-seats loading flexibility. It has a wet galley, vacuum lavatory, and optional Viasat KA-band SatCom connectivity. It’s the least expensive jet in FLYING’s Buyers Guide to boast fly-by-wire flight controls, a technology that used to be available only on the most expensive jets from Bombardier, Dassault, and Gulfstream. Topping all that, it beats Citation Ascend’s short-field performance on equal length missions. However, being much heavier than Citation Ascend, Praetor 500 burns 20 to 25 percent more fuel.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Embraer Praetor 500

The super-midsize class remains one of the most hotly contested sectors with offerings from Bombardier, Gulfstream, and Textron, as well as Embraer. All contenders feature two cabin sections, typically configured with double-club seating or a single-club section up front and a divan plus two facing chairs at the rear. Bombardier Challenger 3500, the latest variant of the Challenger 300 that entered service in 2003, sports a cabin with nearly the same cross section as a Gulfstream V, lower cabin altitudes to reduce fatigue, more comfortable and stylish Nüage chairs and numerous connectivity and convenience upgrades.

The Challenger 300 series has been the bestseller in class for two decades because of its combination of cabin comfort, performance, operating economics, and dispatch reliability. With fat margins and fuel problems, it’s a cash cow for Bombardier. However, some industry analysts maintain Challenger 3500 is due for a major refresh to keep it competitive in the long term.

The Gulfstream G280 is the performance leader, capable of flying four passengers 3,700 nm at Mach 0.80, and eight passengers 3,500 nm at the same speed. Its cabin is slightly narrower than Challenger 3500, but it’s longer, so the volume is virtually the same. The G280 features a wing derived from the GV airfoil, albeit one with different twist and improved winglets. Fuel efficiency rivals the best class, a result of the low drag wing, fuel-efficient HTF7250G turbofans and comparatively high cruising altitudes. For example, it can climb directly to 43,000 feet on an ISA+10 degree Celsius day. Demand for G280 is getting stronger, with Gulfstream delivering 24 aircraft in 2022, according to GAMA.

Textron Aviation’s Citation Latitude is the firm’s bestselling jet, with 42 deliveries in 2022. Passengers love this airplane, especially its roomy aft lavatory. This low-risk derivative of the Model 680 Sovereign+ offers the largest cabin cross section of any Citation yet to enter production but one with impressive structural efficiency. Its increase in empty weight is less than 360 pounds compared to Sovereign+, while its cabin is 4 inches higher and 11 inches wider. It features the first flat floor in a Citation, a 9.66 psi pressurization system that maintains cabin altitude below 6,000 feet and a Garmin G5000 flight deck. Cabin width is about 5 inches narrower, and floor width is 7 inches less than in the Praetor 500, thus its cross section is the leanest in class. The Latitude’s typical block speed is 400 knots, so it’s optimized for two- to three-hour trips even though it has a 6.5-hour endurance.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Cessna Citation Latitude

The Latitude’s fraternal twin, the Citation Longitude, shares its cabin cross section, low cabin altitudes, and G5000 avionics package, but little else. The wing has a super-critical airfoil with 28.6 degrees of sweep at one-quarter chord. It’s powered by Honeywell HTF7000 series turbofans, considered best in class by Bombardier, Embraer, and Gulfstream. Normal cruises peed is Mach 0.80, so mission block times are nearly identical to those of Gulfstream G280.

The jet will fly four passengers 3,500 nm and eight passengers 3,400 nm at that speed, enabling it to cruise from New York to Paris, but not necessarily Paris to New York against winter headwinds. On typical two-to three-hour missions, the Longitude burns less fuel than the Latitude and its takeoff and landing distances are only slightly longer. Textron Aviation’s asking price is nearly $30 million, the highest in the super-midsize class, but that’s not dampening sales, again boosted by the company’s renowned product support and the air-plane’s unsurpassed low cabin noise levels. Textron Aviation delivered 26 units in 2022.

Embraer’s Praetor 600 is the value leader in this market niche. With a $21.5 million base price, it’s less than $2 million more than the Citation Latitude, yet it offers an extensive list of standard features. Along with the Praetor 500, it’s the only super-mid to have fly-by-wire flight controls. Its cabin cross is slightly smaller than either the Bombardier Challenger 3500 or Gulfstream G280 but larger than the Latitude or Longitude. Similar to the Citation Latitude and Praetor 500, there is no access to the unpressurized aft baggage compartment in flight. With a highest-in-class, 16,000-plus-pound fuel capacity, it can fly eight passengers 3,900 nm at long-range cruise. At Mach 0.80, range is close to 3,700 nm.

While orders are strong at all the jet manufacturers in FLYING’s Buyers Guide, storm clouds rapidly are forming in Europe. Climate change activists cut the airport security fence at Geneva International Airport (LSGG) in May and chained themselves to aircraft on display at the European Business Aviation Convention& Exhibition, calling for a total ban on private jets, decrying them as “toxic objects” and carrying signs that read, “Warning: Private Jets Drown Our Hope.”

Another environmental group sprayed orange paint on a Citation CJ1 at Sylt, Germany, in June, and a third splattered yellow paint over an Embraer Phenom 300E at Ibiza, Spain, in July, unfurling a banner that read, “Your Luxury = Our Climate Crisis.”

Dassault fully understands the threats posed by environmental protesters in Europe, warning that aviation bashing often translates into government regulatory policies. Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport (EHAM), for instance, plans to ban private jets after 2025. Dassault officials counter that all 2,100 Falcon Jets in service produce the same emissions as a single day of internet video streaming.

To put business jet aviation emissions into perspective, it’s constructive to first look at global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. In 2022, the total was 36.8 billion metric tons, according to the International Energy Agency. IAE says aviation represents 2 percent of total CO2 emissions, or 736 million metric tons. ICAO also quotes a 2 percent aviation share, based upon research conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. GAMA claims that business aviation represents 2 percent of all aircraft emissions, or 14.7 million metric tons.

The World Health Organization, in contrast, reports the tobacco industry emits 84 million metric tons of CO2 every year, more than 5.7 times as much as business aviation. FLYING knows of no climate change activists who are protesting cigarette smoking.

“There’s [an] angle of class warfare here,” says Epstein, the Bank of America analyst.

Says another business aviation veteran: “Business jet owners are targeted as fat cats that don’t have to go through TSA. It’s not yet an existential threat in the U.S. But what happens in Europe eventually comes here.”

In light of growing public sentiment regarding the carbon impact of private jets, the business aviation industry has committed to slashing total CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2050 compared to 2005. Transitioning from fossil fuel to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF or bio jet-A) can reduce overall aircraft CO2 emissions by 80 percent, according to the International Air Transport Association. Some SAF advocates claim up to 90 percent reduction, depending upon the bio feedstocks and production processes.

The challenges to making the jump from fossil jet-A to SAF are immense. Currently, the aviation industry uses close to 100 billion gallons of jet-A annually but only 14 million gallons is SAF, the majority of which was purchased by business jet operators, according to Timothy Obitts, CEO of Alder Fuels, a leading sustainable fuels company in Virginia. One big hurdle to scaling up SAF production is price. The wholesale cost of biojet is up to three times as much as fossil fuel, so FBOs are bound to charge a substantial premium for it, squeezing the already tight budgets of many light jet operators.

• READ MORE: Business Aviation Industry Groups Aim to Speed Adoption of SAF

“Scaling up production of SAF is beyond the scope of business aviation,” says Epstein. “It’s not happening anytime soon. It’s going to take a massive investment by government. And then business aviation can ride on the coattails.”

However, the underpinnings of the business jet sector remain strong.

“People want to travel by air,” Epstein says. “The industry needs to be aware of climate change pressures and manage them. Climate change activists aren’t the ones buying business jets.”

The post Jets: Reaching the Service Ceiling appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Original estimates predicted that it would take years for travel demand to rebound to pre-pandemic levels. In fact, in the first months of the pandemic, the most ambitious estimates indicated that demand would start in 2023. Others projected it might take an additional year or two on top of that.

Airlines responded promptly. Hundreds of airplanes were grounded per airline, amounting to thousands in the United States alone. If American Airlines, the largest airline in the world by fleet size, had grounded a number of airplanes proportional to the drop in demand, they alone would have grounded somewhere between 800 and 900 airplanes; arguably the only thing preventing such a unilateral drop was passenger airlines’ shift to operating cargo flights with their planes to meet the high demand for shipments of medical equipment.

Pictures soon arose of airports where dozens of planes were parked in orderly rows on what would have otherwise been active runways and taxiways, not to be used for over a year. Stories arose of commercial flights with half a dozen people flying on planes built and configured for nearly 200, and some airlines made up the difference by flying fewer flights and blocking middle seats for passenger comfort.

Flight crews also faced challenges. Pilots, flight attendants, and ground service personnel were initially furloughed en masse, eventually able to receive a paycheck because of multiple government bailouts through the CARES Acts.

Still, airlines did not stop trying to find ways to cut their personnel costs, and the cheapest solution they found, considering how long experts estimated the travel downturn would last, was to offer older pilots within a few years of retirement age early retirement packages. After all, some of these pilots would retire before travel would (as estimated) return, so it was beneficial for them to take extra compensation immediately and for the airlines, who would have fewer senior pilots at the top of the pay scale.

That staffing solution was a reasonable idea at the time; all things considered, it was the best thing airlines could do to protect their bottom lines as they prepared for what had all the indications of being a years-long hibernation. For a while, it worked, and, in time, airlines managed to stabilize their situations as best as possible.

Post-Pandemic Travel Rebound

However, in late 2021, something remarkable happened. About two years after the COVID-19 virus was first identified in China, passenger throughput data started trending upward. At first, it was a slow trend. In October 2021, TSA screened 1 million passengers in a day—still a far cry from the 2.5 to 3 million they’d screen every day in 2019, but also the first time more than 1 million passengers flew since U.S. lockdowns began in March 2020.

Data fluctuated up and down around the magical seven-figure mark, but the overall upward trend was undeniable. As time progressed, the industry passed other milestones: airlines arose from financial challenges, airplanes returned to service, routes were reintroduced, and even international travel started to show signs of life again.

And, before anyone could blink, those positive trends started to snowball, and flying returned more rapidly. Soon, every parked airplane was brought back into service. More airplanes were brought out of storage in desert boneyards. But as much as the capacity for travel increased, it still felt one step behind the demand. People wanted to travel so much that airlines even brought back the jumbo jets—the Airbus A380s and Boeing 747s—that they had so recently planned to retire for good.

Airlines have been able to handle aircraft returns to service just fine. What they haven’t been able to plan for quite as well is their staffing.

The Source of Captain Shortages

Remember that the first types of pilots to receive voluntary retirement packages were older pilots. An overwhelming majority of those pilots were captains; they were people who had spent decades building their skills and had reached the epitome of seniority and experience.

Fairly obviously, flights cannot operate without captains. These captains legally serve as the “pilot in command” (PIC), responsible for and the ultimate authority on the safe operation of a particular aircraft. It is their job to oversee the flight to make sure that everything is in order. They make countless decisions to determine that the airplane is airworthy and is capable of making a particular flight safely; that any mechanical discrepancies identified on the ground or in flight are appropriately dealt with; that the routing received from air traffic control is acceptable; and so many other things to make sure that the flight is completed safely and any necessary actions are taken to ensure that safety.

Captain Eligibility

The problem for airlines is that not just anyone can be an airline captain at a major air carrier. Even after a pilot becomes eligible for the license that permits them to fly for these major airlines (which itself requires 1,500 hours and a splattering of other requirements regarding cross country, night, and instrument flight), they need over 1,000 hours as an airline pilot at a major carrier before they can even be considered for a captain position.

“You can’t fly with two first officers,” aviation consultant Robert Mann told Reuters. “You have to have a captain.”

In order to fill the captain positions that were vacated by pilots taking early retirement packages, mainline airlines such as American, Delta, and United needed thousands of captain-qualified first officers (FOs) to upgrade to captain as soon as possible. Many first officers jumped at that chance.

But not every qualified first officer jumped at the opportunity. Some first officers had spent years as second-in-command on a particular fleet type and built up incredible seniority as a first officer. As they neared the end of their careers, these pilots did not want to sacrifice the control they had over their schedules as senior FOs to spend the end of their careers at the bottom of the captain seniority list.

“If I did that, I would’ve ended up divorced and seeing my kids every other weekend,” one United pilot told Reuters, referring to upgrading to the left seat.

Mainline Captain Shortages

This created an issue for major airlines. As quickly as they could upgrade qualified and willing FOs, they still struggled to fill all of the captain vacancies they had. Not only had many captains retired during the pandemic, still more were reaching the mandatory retirement age of 65 and were forced to retire during the travel bounceback. A vicious cycle had begun to make it highly difficult for airlines to fly.

In 2022, for example, United Airlines was unable to fill 50 percent of its captain vacancies because of the FOs’ reluctance to upgrade, amounting to nearly 1,000 captain positions that need to be filled. The same is true in 2023, as in June, the carrier reported that 96 of 198 captain vacancies were still vacant.

“It’s the first time that I’ve ever known it to happen in the airline industry. It is going to impact capacity in the fourth quarter,” CEO Scott Kirby said on an earnings call over the summer.

The airline has 5,900 captains and 7,500 first officers, per its union.

7,000 American Airlines pilots have declined upgrades, per union data obtained by Reuters. American’s union represents over 15,000 pilots.

Mainline vs. Regional Airlines

However, major airlines have one big advantage. To understand it, it’s important to understand the difference between a “mainline” airline and a regional carrier. If a route does not have enough demand to support regular flights from 150- to 200-seat jets, or if it’s worth it to an airline to fly smaller jets more often on a route to maintain competitively flexible schedules, a carrier will outsource to a regional airline to operate those smaller jets.

Only a certain selection of airlines in the U.S. rely on regional carriers. American, Delta, and United are the most visible. Any flight that is branded as “American Eagle,” “Delta Connection,” or “United Express” is operated by a third-party regional operator instead of the main airline. Alaska Airlines also uses regional carriers, though with slightly different brandings: its regional partners fly aircraft that bear both Alaska’s name and the regional’s, such as “Alaska Skywest” for the independent, national regional brand or “Alaska Horizon” for flights operated by wholly-owned subsidiary Horizon Airlines.

Using these regional operators allows major airlines to remain competitive without needing to pay for hundreds of extra planes. Instead, they pay regionals a certain fee per departure, and the regionals handle their own staffing and buy or lease their own aircraft.

Notably, during the pandemic, major airlines reduced the number of regional partners they worked with for this reason; for instance, ExpressJet stopped operating for months after United Airlines cut its contract in favor of another regional partner.

For many reasons, regional airlines are a fascinating case study in airline flying. How pilots view these regional carriers is one of those. With the exception of SkyWest, which operates in all but a handful of U.S. states, regional carriers are called such because they operate within a specific region of the country. With limited exception, Republic Airways operates almost exclusively east of the Mississippi River; CommuteAir, which beat out ExpressJet for United’s business, operates a few routes in the Midwest, Texas, eastern Canada, and the western U.S.; Horizon Air operates only on the West Coast.

This regionality makes these carriers a great option for pilots who want to be able to stay closer to home throughout their careers. However, many more pilots use regional airlines as a stepping stone to make them attractive applicants for major airlines. With time flying multiengine jets at big, busy airports in an airline environment, they can make themselves viable for further career opportunities at the mainline carriers.

The regionals faced the same challenges with more senior captains retiring early during the pandemic and needed first officers to upgrade to the captain position as soon as they were qualified to maintain smooth operations.

“And from a regional perspective, it’s really not a pilot supply issue at this point. It’s more of an issue of having first officers with the amount of time, the thousand hours that they need to graduate from the right seat to the left seat,” American Airlines Group CEO Robert Isom said during a Q3 2023 earnings call last week. He added that American itself isn’t seeing issues with filling captain vacancies, but noted struggles on the regional side. Unlike its competitors, American has three wholly-owned regional subsidiaries, including PSA, Piedmont, and Envoy.

The Captain Shortage at Regional Airlines

However, the regional airlines had an additional pressure. While mainline companies mainly worried about losing pilots to retirement, regionals also had to worry about losing pilots who got jobs at the mainline airlines. And these new hires were not limited only to the big three; regional pilots also leave for low-cost airlines like Southwest, Spirit, and Frontier.

As mainline companies lost first officers to captain upgrades, they suddenly found themselves in desperate need of new first officers to fill the second seat in the cockpit. These new first officers came overwhelmingly from the regional airlines, whether or not they were captains themselves.

Thus, regional airlines found themselves in the same predicament that mainline airlines did: in desperate need of captains and trying as hard as possible to convince first officers to make the switch. There is an additional challenge for them, though. Because of their experience at regionals, new pilots at mainline airlines often meet the legal experience requirements to be captains. As they build experience in a new airplane type with their new employer, they are legally eligible for a captain upgrade as soon as they are senior enough as first officers for the new airline to make the option available.

Regional airlines do not have that benefit. Many of their new hires are eligible to be airline pilots after spending years as flight instructors, aerial survey pilots, or flying for private aircraft owners. These new airline pilots need to fly 1,000 hours at their airline before the company can even think about upgrading them. As captains disappeared to new, better-paying airlines and new pilots came in with no captain-qualifying experience, regional airlines found themselves in a bit of a catch-22: they can’t fill their captain vacancies without qualified first officers, but they can’t get their first officers to be qualified because there are not enough captains to operate the flights that will get those first officers their experience.

Regional Airlines’ Response

While it is easy for mainline carriers to hire first officers that will be ready to upgrade soon—they are, after all, career-destination companies with thousands of applicants from a wide variety of regional, low-cost, and charter airlines—regionals do not have that benefit. They have such an imbalance of captains to first officers that they have been forced to cut upwards of 20 percent of their schedules to prevent mass flight cancellations. This has brought service losses at a significant number of smaller airports.

Regional carriers have offered signing bonuses worth tens of thousands of dollars to pilots who get hired directly as captains. This might be attractive to charter pilots looking to switch to airline flying. Certain types of charter experience meets the 1,000-hour captain experience requirement, and pilots might be attracted to an opportunity where they can build PIC time—such experience is itself very valuable—in multiengine jet aircraft, making them all the more qualified for management jobs (as a line check airman or chief pilot) or a position at a mainline carrier.

Industry-Wide Response

Steps have been taken, of course, to try to remedy these problems. Delta Air Lines announced a major update to its pilot contract in the spring, forcing United Airlines to follow suit over the summer. American Airlines introduced their own contract soon after. Officials say these deals will go a long way toward ensuring the mainline carriers are sufficiently staffed with captains moving forward, though it has yet to be seen how effective the new deals will really be.

Particularly, airlines hope that updates to work/life balance in these new contracts will be strong incentives for pilots to move to the left seat. As previously mentioned, the loss of seniority after a captain upgrade can be a significant turnoff for senior first officers who want to spend time with their families and avoid forced assignments.

“Junior captains are faced with amplified uncertainties in their flight schedules, on-call commitments, and sudden assignments, translating to reduced stability,” says Jainita Hogervorst, director of Aerviva Aviation Consultancy, a Dubai-based aviation recruitment consultancy.

“Such uncertainty in scheduling might trickle down to other issues, such as unsatisfactory work-life balance,” Hogervorst continued. “The evolving work-life balance landscape and societal attitudes towards career encourage a shift in working people’s attitude, pilots included.”

There have also been attempts to lower the minimum experience requirements for new airline pilots and raise the pilot retirement age, both by the federal government and individual airlines themselves. These calls have brought an outcry from flight crews, but their fates have yet to be determined.

“We can hire first officers. I think almost every regional airline right now has a stack of first officers,” CommuteAir CEO Rick Hoefling told AirlineGeeks at the unveiling of the regional carrier’s first Embraer E170 jet last week. “The problem is building their time at the same time you’re attriting out captains at a pretty high rate in the industry.”

“We went from a pilot shortage to a captain shortage now in the industry. So the pendulum is starting to move,” Hoefling added.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) estimates a need for over 350,000 pilots by 2026 to sustain operations and fill captain slots around the world; consultancy firm Oliver Wyman estimates global aviation will be short 80,000 pilots by 2032. This comes after U.S. airlines are on track for record hiring numbers in 2023.

The massive shortage has been a benefit for aspiring pilots, and there has been a significant uptick in new student pilots as well as pilot certificates issued in recent years. The FAA issued thousands of commercial pilot certificates in 2022, and while some of those pilots will return to foreign markets for jobs, the additional pilots will be able to ease some of the burdens that airlines are facing.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AirlineGeeks.com.

The post Why Airlines Struggle to Keep Captains appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The diversion procedures necessary to transit on a route 90 degrees offset from the track system over the North Atlantic can be tedious, but we accomplished the task without creating a traffic conflict, despite the fact my copilot was new to the airplane. 

After becoming immediately enamored with the spectacular scenery, despite a mere 55 minutes in the country, I vowed to return as a tourist. Ten years later, my wife and I chose our 25th anniversary for the return visit, accompanied by a group of five friends. 

Although I’ve traveled in the back seats of airplanes over the course of my career, somehow this particular trip made me feel more like a passenger. Perhaps the feeling was a result of four years of distance between me and an airline cockpit, or perhaps I was just feeling irrelevant. Or perhaps it was some of the circumstances of the trip. (More on that later.)

So, how does a retired airline pilot function in a passenger role having been the one in control for decades? Well, I’ve got to admit that it’s difficult to avoid glancing to the left as I step through the entry door. Maybe I’ll recognize someone sitting in the pointy end, a former copilot perhaps? Maybe the glance is more of an attempt at somehow feeling reassured that by studying a face, or observing a gesture, or hearing the response to a checklist item, my confidence in the crew is reinforced. Or just maybe I suffer from self-reproach, having the need to see just how much younger the crew is than me.

I usually annoy my wife with opening the window shade so as to “assist” from the inside with any operational concerns, a request she patronizes unless glaring sunlight pierces through. We both make it a habit to review the emergency card to determine our nearest exit, and then visualize how to operate that exit. I will admit to being a PA critic. If the captain can’t string a few sentences together that instills confidence, makes sense, or is audible, I’ll quietly mutter my opinion.

I attempt to determine our takeoff runway based on my limited view of our taxi route. Why? If an emergency evacuation is necessary, I’ll have some situational awareness to assist anxious passengers…and…well…maybe knowing where we are is still part of my airline pilot psyche.

In the same manner that flight attendants are trained, my eyes remain open during the takeoff roll. After rotation, I note the time and listen for an engine to cough. Satisfied that the airplane is flying normally, I take advantage of the climb deck angle to catch a snooze. The sound of a single chime indicates climbing through 10,000 feet msl and the end of the sterile period, which signals the end of my accuracy on altitude.

Throughout the flight, I can’t help but people watch. Despite media reports of raving lunatics having meltdowns, I’ve experienced mostly friendly and considerate folks. Now that I spend more time in the back of the bus, I am even more grateful for the veteran flight attendants who handled my testy passenger situations without ever requiring a cockpit consultation. 

With most people biologically connected to their electronic devices, an open window shade seems to be a rare occurrence. An open window shade is tantamount to having a loud conversation in a library. In that regard, my geographic orientation to the outside world during the descent, approach, and landing is limited. On the occasions that I recognize a familiar landmark, I’ll assist the crew by non-verbally advising when to deploy flaps and the landing gear. No one listens.

Unless the touchdown drops masks or rattles my fillings, I don’t critique. You can’t judge without being aware of the challenges that the flying pilot encountered. If the touchdown was a deftly accomplished grease job in adverse weather conditions, an “attaboy” is warranted while deplaning.

Back to Iceland. Our group spent 10 days together on a self-driving tour, traveling counterclockwise around almost the entire island. Two retired airline pilots and one active airline pilot shared the driving and navigating with a surprisingly high degree of success. The scenery was spectacular. The food was delectable—even the Icelandic hot dog had merit. The people were affable and accommodating. The service was superb. The language was…well, let’s just say the locals were apologetic. Thankfully, English was widely spoken.

Unfortunately, the departure day back to the States didn’t end well for my wife and me. My mounting symptoms of congestion, coughing, and a sore throat culminated in a positive COVID-19 test for both of us. We were grounded. The hotel allowed us to check back in, but room availability for the next week was limited. Between coughing fits the following day, I secured lodging at another location in downtown Reykjavik. My wife was 36 hours behind me with her symptoms. Except for one lucky member of our anniversary tour group, everyone else tested positive shortly after their arrival home to the U.S.

Icelandair proved problematic in that the last-ever nonstop to our origination airport of KMCO (Orlando International) was the flight we had missed. With the airline having a code-share agreement with JetBlue, a connection seemed an easy solution. But no. Icelandair’s policy was only to return us to a destination that was on their route system, which was Baltimore, JFK, or Boston.

Despite my COVID-influenced phone conversation attempting to reason with the agent that none of the aforementioned destinations were an acceptable distance from our origination airport, we were on our own. So, this is what it’s really like to be a passenger?

After almost five days of isolation, when my wife and I felt relatively human, we happened upon Icelandair’s headquarters near the Reykjavik Airport (BIRK) during a walk. An agonizing 90 minutes later, we trotted away with a negotiated settlement of 50 percent off JetBlue’s connection fare to Orlando from Boston. Perhaps it was my story of the diversion 10 years prior that tugged at the agent’s heart. Probably not—otherwise we would have paid nothing.

The good news: Despite the circumstances, my wife and I managed to salvage the extended stay and had an enjoyable experience once the virus was in the rearview mirror. The checkbook balance is still in pandemic recovery stage, but we’ll survive.

We departed Keflavik Airport (BIKF) almost three weeks after we had arrived on a Boeing 737 Max 8, which seemed ironically appropriate. (It’s time to stop stretching the airplane, but that’s fodder for another story.) Like a surgeon donning a hospital gown for his own surgery, being a passenger is probably not my forte.

This column was originally published in the December 2022/January 2023 Issue 933 of FLYING.

The post On Being a Passenger appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Oh, what blissful ignorance we had. Little did I know, my beloved industry was about to embark on a wild ride. A few short weeks later, everything came to a grinding halt because of COVID-19, and life as we know it changed forever. What happened next is a story of uncertainty, tenacity, and innovative thinking.

How has aircraft maintenance changed since COVID? 

Aviation Challenges, Changes

A year after commercial aviation essentially stood still, my alma mater Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University published an online article entitled “Aviation Maintenance Today: Changes and Challenges” to discuss current challenges faced by aviation.

While the pandemic did not cause the following conditions, it rapidly accelerated and exacerbated the issue. Each of these would have come to pass, but not at the haste they do now. 

Qualified Personnel Shortage 

Aerospace management consulting firm Oliver Wyman, LLC, in February 2023, published an insight entitled “Not Enough Aviation Mechanics” to address the coming shortage in aircraft maintenance labor this decade. 

The shortage of qualified personnel is not breaking news. Those of us in aviation know the struggle to recruit, train, and retain technically-skilled labor. It would have made headlines regardless of the pandemic.

The airlines lost around 400,000 workers because of the pandemic, according to Forbes. In reality, many aviation entities, unsure of the future, allowed some of their talent to leave the company and the aviation industry. Many affected workers found new homes in high-tech, construction, or remote work opportunities.

New Aircraft Fleet Growth

Although the rapid decline of commercial airline travel received most of the media coverage during the pandemic, other business sectors continued to fly, and some even thrived during turbulent times. General aviation kept flying when governments shut the country down. There is nothing quite like sheltering in place with your Cessna 182 and finally getting that STC accomplished.

In all seriousness, corporate aviation is booming currently, and the forecast calls for more blue skies. Aircraft manufacturer Bombardier released performance numbers on February 9, and the “targets reflect the third consecutive year of steady growth.” Time to sharpen those Challenger 3500 ratings.

Experts say that business aviation will continue to expand upward through 2030 and beyond. This situation equates to more significant fleet sizes, newer platforms, and opportunities to obtain legacy airframes as companies modernize. Think about your company and its current fleet. What is the plan for growth?

Innovative Technologies

There’s an old adage that says, “necessity is the mother of invention.” This continues to ring true in the 21st century. Our world is rapidly changing. Those willing to embrace this will find ways to flourish in the new realm. Will this mean writers need to learn ChatGPT? That hurts my heart to type it.    

Traditionally electrical power lines had to be patrolled by ground crews or through the air using aircraft and helicopters. Now drones are getting the nod. At the beginning of this year, my hometown newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, posted an article about how a legacy aviation business is rebranding itself. Charter company Phoenix Air, based in Cartersville, entered the drone market and is looking to capitalize on the growing trend.

Speaking of drones, some people redirect their careers and creatively embrace this new technology. The New York Times posted a picture of Steven Ray Littles II, after leaving his job as a flight attendant, decided to turn his drone photography hobby into a business. Plato would be so pleased. 

Technical Training Trends

For decades the elders passed the knowledge to the younger generation verbally, in written procedures, and sometimes through mentoring and on-the-job training. The pandemic—and subsequent lockdowns—drove everyone inside their homes, and public gatherings were banned. The trouble was, people still needed to learn.

Fast forward three years, and life is beginning to reopen. Person-to-person learning is allowed, but some like the ability to learn remotely. While remote is advantageous for some, others prefer in-person.

Companies like the T-C-Alliance offer blended learning with both virtual and physical training. 

Aging A&P mechanics

Everyone gets old. I am reminded of this every time I stand up too quickly. The silver lining to your golden years is the ability to share hard-learned life experiences with the next generation. Dave Beauchamp, former director of maintenance at Atlanta Northside Aviation, would periodically come to the shop and help on intricate jobs. One time I hired him to assist in rebuilding twin Piper Navajo Colemill Panther conversion TIO-540-J2BDs.

To pay it forward, the National Business Aviation Association set up a mentoring network to help connect those interested in sharing knowledge. For more information, contact mentoring@nbaa.org. 

Mentoring is not a one-way event. Often younger mechanics fresh out of school can help us greybeards learn new techniques, processes, and maintenance practices. Have you ever seen a 30+ year veteran attempt to navigate an iPad? Trust me on this one.

The post Aircraft Maintenance and Weathering a Pandemic appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

My employer had resumed hiring, as had every other airline and most flight departments and Part 135 and 91K operators. Flight training was proceeding apace, and United had just opened its new Aviate Academy. The coming year seemed likely to eclipse 2019 in terms of both training and hiring, but otherwise represent an evolution of the ongoing pilot shortage.

Instead, we got a year that surpassed all expectations and shattered industry norms. In 2022, Delta Air Lines is on target to hire 2,500 pilots—almost twice its previous hiring record—and United’s and American’s hiring is on a similarly frenetic pace. In all, the three legacy airlines accounted for 5,465 pilots hired through September, according to data from the Future & Active Pilot Advisors web site.

The low-cost and national airlines hired another 3,101, and the three largest cargo airlines, another 1,557. At my airline, the hiring has also been accompanied by strong internal advancement. For the first time ever, we’ve had new-hires placed into our largest international widebody fleets, the Airbus A350 and A330. Brand new line pilots not even off probation have been awarded captain upgrades (NYC 737), and pilots with a mere two years of seniority are getting the Boeing 757/767 left seat. Every time I come to work, there’s some crazy new development that has us all shaking our heads.

And yet, there’s nothing happening at my airline that compares to the earth-shattering revolution happening at the regional airlines right now. Understand that ever since they started in the early 1980s, the regionals have formed a sort of minor league system for pilots. Almost all of us at the majors who are from a civilian background spent time at the regionals, building the experience necessary to move upward. The regionals were notoriously low-paid, and for a time in the late 80s through mid-1990s, many airlines actually required pilots to pay for their own training. The attitude was generally “you need us more than we need you, and we know you’ll do anything for that dream job.”

But of course, the regionals do need pilots to operate—moderately experienced pilots at that, thanks to the 1,500-hour rule—and such pilots are suddenly in huge demand. As soon as the post-COVID hiring boom took off, the regionals’ attrition numbers skyrocketed to an unsustainable level. It’s not just that they’re losing captains to the likes of Delta and United; they are also losing first officers (FO) to Spirit and JetBlue and Atlas, sometimes after as little as a year of employment. This is doubly threatening to the regionals’ ability to staff their contractual flying, because few of their new hires have the experience requirements to upgrade quickly; they need a few years on the line first. The only solution was to increase their pay enough to entice FOs to stick around long enough to upgrade and fly as captain for a few years before moving on.

American Airlines’ wholly-owned regionals—Envoy, Piedmont, and PSA—were the first to do this, as I reported in a V1 Rotate video on July 1. Their pilot contract wasn’t up for renegotiation for another two years, but out of the blue, they announced permanent raises of 13 to 32 percent, temporary raises of 50 percent above that, and a 100 percent bonus for check airmen. This brought first year FO pay to around $90,000 (plus bonuses), captain pay increased to around $146 to $213/hour, and check airmen are making as much as $426 per hour.

For comparison, the top American Boeing 777 captain rate is a “mere” $342/hour. This development was particularly delicious because only a few years back, American had threatened its regional pilots with annihilation unless they signed concessionary contracts. Cause, meet effect.

Naturally, all the other regional airlines were forced to follow suit shortly thereafter or see their most experienced pilots leave for Envoy et al. Industry giants Skywest and Republic matched the new rates and made them permanent, Horizon nearly doubled its existing rates, and even notoriously cheap airlines, like Mesa, have been forced onto the bandwagon. Delta’s wholly-owned regional, Endeavor, resisted the longest, insisting that the flow agreement to Delta would be enough to entice new pilots—but, faced with triple-digit monthly attrition and single-digit new hire classes, was finally forced to give up the game last week. They actually put up higher numbers than the American wholly-owned carriers, increasing new-hire pay to $100/hour, which is more than first-year pilots on Delta’s mainline.

The obvious question is where this is all leading. The regionals’ cost structure was never that much lower than the majors; a decade ago, their CASM (cost per available seat-mile) was within 5 to 10 percent of their major partners. Now, it must be incredibly high to an unsustainable degree. Add to this the regional carriers’ financial and operational instability and the negative effects on their major partners’ brands, and it becomes hard to see a reason for the regional airline industry to continue to exist. I’ve been arguing this day would come ever since I started writing about the pilot shortage in 2014, and now it has happened. The only reason for the current arrangement to persist at this point is industry inertia and C-suite egos. Mind you, those are considerable factors, and the regionals may continue to trudge along for years, slapping very expensive Band-Aids on the problem. Or, a major airline may choose to take a bold step that changes the industry, and the piloting profession.

If I were the CEO of American Airlines, here’s what I’d negotiate with APA [Allied Pilots Association] and ALPA [Air Line Pilots Association], who I think would be happy to oblige: I’d keep the Envoy, Piedmont, and PSA certificates for the moment, folding them into a single regional certificate or into mainline later, but I’d bring all their pilots onto the American seniority list immediately with the proviso that all American flying, regional or mainline, is to be performed by American Airlines pilots. I’d specify that all future new-hires with a military background or 4,000 hours total time and 1,000 hours turbine PIC can bid mainline equipment if they choose, while those with less will stay on regional equipment until they meet those hour requirements. This arrangement would ensure American remains an airline of choice for both experienced pilots as well as those with 1,500 hours, while providing very predictable staffing for the regional feed. It would also make any academy or cadet program they choose to develop considerably more popular, with a strong field of suitable applicants.

Will American or Delta or United adopt my proposal or something like it? I don’t know, because there is a very rich history of irrational management in this industry. But it does very much feel like everything changed in 2022, and I don’t think we’ve seen the end of the follow-on effects.

The post Game Over for Regional Airlines? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

“We’ve been hunkered down for two years. It’s time to go out and have some fun—or better yet, go to the Butchart Gardens in Victoria and see them!” says Todd Banks, president and CEO of Kenmore Air.

The flights to Canada were suspended in March 2020 when the border was closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kenmore Air will resume air service between Seattle and Victoria, British Columbia, on April 1. On May 1, service resumes between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia. 

This has been made possible, says Banks, by the reopening of Canadian airports. They were closed in March 2020 by Transport Canada (the Canadian aviation authority, akin to the FAA) as a means of controlling the spread of COVID.

The NOTAM expired earlier this month.

“The airports are reopening in a phased approach,” Banks explains. “Kenmore Air will begin two flights per day, then ramp up the schedule as more customers show up during tourist season. We are adjusting, waking up our organization thoughtfully and safely.”

By June, the company aims to have four flights a day between Seattle and Victoria and Vancouver.

What You Need to Go

The COVID testing requirements for travelers between Canada and Washington state were also recently relaxed, so travelers do not need to show proof of a recent negative COVID test, but they must show proof of a vaccine.

Customers are also required to have a current passport. Banks suggests using the ArriveCAN app that allows the user to put in their vaccination information and passport information.

Masks will still have to be worn on the aircraft as Kenmore is a Part 135 operation and required to follow FAA requirements on masking. Masks are still required on public transportation.

Why This Matters

Kenmore Air, with its iconic de Havilland DHC-2 Beavers on floats are as much a symbol of the Pacific Northwest as the Space Needle, Mount Rainier, or the orca. Banks grandfather, Robert Munro, founded the company with two friends in 1946. 

For residents of the Pacific Northwest, the increase in the number of the Kenmore Beavers on floats taking off and landing on Lake Washington either heading to or coming from someplace is a sure sign of spring. 

Banks notes the company performs engine overhauls for Beavers in addition to scheduled and charter operations. In the less flying intensive months, the maintenance team stays very busy.

To make a reservation or to take advantage of one of Kenmore’s air tours or trips in Washington state, visit the Kenmore Air website.

The post Kenmore Air to Resume Flights to British Columbia appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

IATA represents approximately 290 airlines comprising 83 percent of global air traffic. The organization wants all travel barriers removed (including quarantine and testing) for those fully vaccinated with a WHO-approved vaccine, as well as quarantine-free travel for non-vaccinated travelers with a negative pre-departure antigen test result.

“With the experience of the Omicron variant, there is mounting scientific evidence and opinion opposing the targeting of travelers with restrictions and country bans to control the spread of COVID-19,” IATA’s Director General Willie Walsh said in a statement.

“The measures have not worked. Today, Omicron is present in all parts of the world. That’s why travel, with very few exceptions, does not increase the risk to general populations. The billions spent testing travelers would be far more effective if allocated to vaccine distribution or strengthening health care systems.”

The relaxation of #travel restrictions must accelerate as #COVID19 evolves into an endemic stage.

The over-reaction to #omicron proved the need for simple, predictable & practical means of living with the that don’t default to de-connecting the .

https://t.co/bj0YhRXr0B pic.twitter.com/WncZfxLRs1

— IATA (@IATA) January 25, 2022

Furthermore, Walsh said that the U.K., France, and Switzerland have begun easing travel bans based on a study that IATA cites which claims, “travel restrictions in any part of the world have had little impact on the spread of COVID-19, including the Omicron variant.”

The U.K. will remove testing requirements for vaccinated international passengers February 11; Australia will re-open its borders on February 21; and New Zealand, through a five-stage process, will re-open on February 27. 

The U.S. lifted its restrictions in November, allowing vaccinated travelers to visit. 

“More governments need to follow their lead. Accelerating the removal of travel restrictions will be a major step towards living with the virus,” Walsh said. “We must aim at a future where international travel faces no greater restriction than visiting a shop.”

IATA says it is appropriate to reframe the crisis now as endemic because society is equipped with tools to mitigate the devastating nature of COVID-19, and that the shift would allow public health entities to now expand their focus from individuals to population-wide protections.

One initiative that IATA has rolled out is its IATA Travel Pass. The app aims to simplify international travel by informing passengers of all the pertinent details they need to know to enter foreign countries, such as tests and vaccines.  

The post IATA to Governments: Do Away with Travel Restrictions appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The rise in COVID infections fueled by the omicron variant and bad weather that has forced passenger airlines to cancel thousands of flights is now disrupting operations at FedEx Express.[insert stock ticker]

The parcel and freight carrier warned recently that staffing problems resulting from rising infection rates among pilots and ground personnel in its air network—combined with severe winter weather events—are slowing deliveries.

“We are implementing contingency plans and adjusting operations to minimize delays while continuing to provide the best possible service to our customers during these difficult times. Volume currently moving through the network will be prioritized for processing,” the company said in a notice to customers.

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Snow and ice have affected operations at FedEx Express’ global hub in Memphis, Tennessee, as well as other locations in the Midwest and eastern U.S.

An embargo on pickups for International Priority Freight was lifted Monday and deferred Premium Domestic FedEx Express Freight and International Economy Freight pickup is expected to resume Thursday, the notice said.

Alternative efforts to minimize delays include diverting shipments to FedEx’s heavy truck network.

Customers that need to move large shipments sooner are advised to divert domestic FedEx Express freight volume to FedEx’s less-than-truckload division, FedEx Freight, or another preferred LTL carrier. Critical shipments can also be upgraded to First Overnight Freight. And choose International parcel services instead of International Express freight services where possible, the company said.

Omicron Hits Airlines

The FedEx (NYSE:FDX) situation is a reminder that supply chains will continue to face disruptions from COVID outbreaks this year. In the air cargo sector, for example, Cathay Pacific suspended most cargo flights for a week and will only operate at about 20 percent of pre-pandemic during the first quarter because of stricter quarantine provisions in Hong Kong that are removing pilots from duty. 

Passenger airlines have been forced to cancel thousands of flights since late December because there isn’t sufficient personnel to cover for the many pilots and cabin crew calling out sick with COVID. Bad weather is worsening the situation by making it difficult to relocate available crew to locations that need replacements. 

Last Thursday, Alaska Airlines announced it will reduce its flight schedule through the end of January by 10 percent so it can stabilize operations and service reliability. The move follows JetBlue’s proactive cancellation of about 1,300 flights through January. 

Tight staffing levels stem from downsizing during the height of the pandemic last year and are a factor in the flight cancellations because airlines don’t have the ability to recover as quickly as normal. Many domestic airlines were encouraged by strong demand and overscheduled flights relative to their labor capacity.

United Airlines is paying pilots three times the normal rate to encourage them to pick up extra slots. Other airlines are similarly bumping pay for cabin crew willing to take extra assignments.

The omicron variant is also depressing air travel, and cargo capacity in passenger aircraft, temporarily dampening the airline industry’s improved pace of recovery as nations relaxed travel restrictions in the fall. 

German carrier Lufthansa, for example, recently cut its winter flight schedule by about 10 percent as the spread of the omicron variant causes countries to reimpose border restrictions and generates uncertainty about travel. 

UPS (NYSE:UPS) says sick workers are not impacting its operations, according to Reuters, which first reported about the FedEx delays.

The post FedEx Air Shipments Delayed as Omicron Variant Sickens Pilots appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

When a person tests positive for the virus, they are required to quarantine for 10 days. That number comes from guidelines set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This 10-day quarantine, combined with passenger loads at pre-pandemic levels, is resulting in hundreds of canceled flights a day. 

On Christmas Eve, CNN reported 2,000 flights had been canceled across the world, approximately 455 of them domestically. Both Delta and United Airlines reported having to cancel hundreds of flights, despite the fact that 90 percent of their workforce is fully vaccinated.

This week, representatives from Airlines for America, an organization that represents several major airlines, including Delta and United and several others, asked the CDC to modify the quarantine guidelines for fully vaccinated people from 10 days to five days.

Earlier this week, the CDC adopted this reduced quarantine time for healthcare workers.

Jet Blue CEO Robin Hayes sent an open letter to the CDC asking that the quarantine for the air travel industry also be reduced to five days, noting that when the 10-day quarantine was adopted it was early in the pandemic, when very little was known about the virus. Hayes noted that both a vaccine and treatment for the virus have since been developed.

In the meantime, airlines are working to notify customers about flight disruptions well before they arrive at the airport.

The post Airlines Cancel Christmas Eve Flights, Citing COVID Spread appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The TBM 700 has found a niche not only in its use by pilots for personal and business use—the turboprop also serves in military applications, including a fleet of 23 TBM 700As and 3 TBM 700Bs deployed for the French military.

While the bulk of the fleet is detailed to the French Air and Space Force, with 15 aircraft, others are used by the army and the DGA defense procurement agency’s flight test program. The French military has renewed its services contract with Daher in support of these missions.

“The French Ministry for the Armed Forces is a demanding client that always has pushed us towards excellence, especially in challenging times,” said Nicolas Chabbert, senior vice president of Daher’s Aircraft Division.

“Recently, our teams were mobilized to meet the needs of the French armed forces, including the Gendarmerie, in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” Chabbert said. “We are proud to continue our support in operational conditions with the new contract extension, marking its renewal for the fourth time.”

The contract covers expected activity of 10,900 flight hours annually on average logged by the French military’s TBM fleet.

The contract renewal includes the following services:

• Technical and logistical support (central technical assistance, on-site technical assistance, obsolescence management, and technical fact management and documentation)
• Maintenance of airframes, propellers, engines, parts, and installed equipment, as well as performing scheduled inspections
• Supply of spare parts and specific components necessary for support operations carried out by the military operators

The post French Military Renews Contract With Daher for TBM 700 Fleet appeared first on FLYING Magazine.