Pilot Quandary

November 4th, 2007

The timing of this piece can be construed as deliberate, but it doesn’t solve the underlying problem of airline pilots.

That’s not to suggest pilots are the problem per se, rather, their training, recruitment and retention is the crux of the problem, and this is prevelent in one region where aviation has moved leaps and bound over the last two decades.

The Middle East.

Image copyrighted and owned by BOEING777 and FleetBuzz.com

No coincidence then that Gulf News reports that over the next two decades 8,000 pilots are required for the region alone.

Only a week ago, Etihad Airways proudly boasted two Emirati women as amongst the first in the UAE to fly for the national airline.

Image courtesy of Gulf News / Salma Mohammad Al Baloushi (nearest) and Aisha Hassan Al Mansouri (rear).

As a leading Arab nation, combining traditional Islamic conservatism amongst a nation on the rise in the global world of commerce, the breaking of cultural and even religious traditions to cater for the growth in demand for pilots, the trend toward seeing more Arab/Islamic women taking up the role of a commercial airline pilot is destined to take off. Literally.

Even in countries where womens rights are very easily transgressed such as in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Muslim women have been making their mark known - that they too should be approached to ease a potential crises for staffing the Middle East flightdecks.

Munirah Mohammad Buruki (pictured below) graduated just over two years ago and became the first female pilot in Kuwait.

Like Munirah, Hanadi Zakariya Hindi (pictured below) is one a few women that have reached the pinnacle of being a Captain. Ironically, Saudi law prevents her from driving an automobile yet was the first Saudi woman to command a civilian airplane. Go figure.

Image courtesy of Arab News

Gender aside, Qatar Airways too itself is struggling to find Boeing 777 pilots - just weeks before delivery of its first Boeing 777-300ER airplane.

As Emirates soaks in more 777’s, the carrier has sought pilots from across the region and beyond. Most notable defections have come ironically from the airline that set up Emirates, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). Bemused with a recent EU-wide ban on older airplanes, PIA pilots have left in droves across the Persian Gulf to capitalize on the employment opportunities the UAE, and the emirate of Dubai has to offer.

In Ras Al Khaimah, one of the seven UAE emirates, Dubai Aerospace Enterprises (DAE) is to invest heavily in a flight training school at the airport. The UAE’s insatiable appetite for pilots shows no sign of abating.

Large swathes of Africa have been approached by Emirates and Qatar Airways. Both Kenya Airways and TAAG Angola Airlines have found themselves at the mercy of the lucrative employment packages the Middle East carriers offer that they are unable to match and consequently find their own staff exodus difficult to manage.

Some may argue the solution will be in eventually having pilotless aircraft. While the concept itself is not new, one only has to look at the plethora of Predator UAV drones being used in various theatres around the world to see that the technology exists to implement into civilian airplanes. Whether passengers feel at ease with that concept is debatable.

While there is no immediate answer to the question of resource, I wonder whether the next generation of single aisle airplanes which replace todays Boeing 737 and Airbus A32X families will encapsulate a single pilot flightdeck.

It’s certainly not out of the realm. For years, military pilots have flown reconnaissance flights for many hours. It can easily be replicated in regular airline service, although for long haul routes, the requirement to have an extra crew on board will mean that widebody jets may not (yet) see a sole pilot in command.

While the industry expands and regions such as the Middle East seek out new pilots, the pressure on other carriers increases to offer better packages to retain their crew.

In a world where competition is high, it may be inevitable that the reality of a single pilot, or indeed, pilotless airplane will be pushed into being sooner than many would like. Passengers may still feel safe knowing it’s a human up front with ultimate authority, but unless the sponge of the Middle East does not stop soaking in pilots from abroad, the shortage may well boil over into a global problem - a problem many airlines just aren’t prepared to cope with.

Safety is paramount - a senior executive at a leading African airline who has seen pilots defect to both Emirates and Air Arabia tells me this:

“Pilots are being used as pawns. They see a better financial package and just go. We’re left behind to cope with fewer staff and fear that safety is being compromised. We can’t have a situation where we rely on our existing staff to work rota’s designed for more pilots than we employ - they are human, not machines - they need rest too.“

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