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Traditionally, pilots head for the airlines first and then move into business aviation. What looks likely to happen is that there will be more pilots flying for the airlines and there will be fewer top calibre pilots available to the corporate sector. As an industry which is dependent on its reputation, this could have dire consequences for safety, unless it does something now. The public perception of business aviation safety is a delicate topic. Last July the entire crew of an American private jet was killed in the south of France when it crashed on landing. The twin-engined Gulfstream-IV came down at Castellet airport, between Marseille and Toulon, with all the victims believed to have died on impact. Awful though the event was, the mainstream media often leap on such stories and distort them to put our industry in a negative light. Last June Bloomberg reported that the crash rate on private-pilot flights in the US was up 20 percent since 2000. The writer contrasted this with a roughly 85 percent drop in accidents on commercial jetliners, gleaned from data from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. In 2011 the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration used the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee to study accidents, which discovered that the largest category of accidents are those in which pilots lose control during flight. Business aircraft often operate into smaller airfields lacking the safety equipment associated with airports serving scheduled commercial air traffic. 80% of accident investigations place pilot decision making as the primary cause. Cockpit resource management is an essential element in the training of all pilots and crew but it is not a requirement for jet charter operators outside the EU and accidents often take place due to poor crew co-ordination and not following standard operating procedures. Stiff competition with airlines for pilot recruitment The most important factor affecting business aviation is the worldwide shortage of pilots. This is an international problem. Forecasters anticipate that China will become the world’s second-largest aviation market after the US within 20 years and Chinese airlines are falling over themselves to recruit qualified foreigners. India is also desperate to entice captains from the West. The country’s strong economic growth has boosted the market for air travel. There are six to seven million air passengers in the country, and industry watchers say their numbers could rise tenfold in five years. The supply of new pilots in India is also being squeezed, as a number of flight schools have had to suspend lessons because their instructors have been hired to fly for commercial carriers. Middle Eastern airlines, too, are demanding pilots at a rate of knots. Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways all regularly recruit and local private operators, such as National Air Services or the region’s various royal flights, are constantly looking for pilots. Larger carriers also face a challenge, although theirs is more about finding volumes of quality staff. Business aviation growth Coupled with the need for airline pilots, despite the current downturn, business aviation is set to grow, and while Europe, along with South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, has supplied a large number of the pilots over recent years, this flow may soon start to dry up, as the airline industry begins to recover. British Airways, for example, has re-introduced a cadet programme for the first time in decades. However, business aviation enjoys a reputation for high standards of maintenance and safety, which it can call on to offset extra costs that it could incur because of increased bureaucracy. For example, in Europe, The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is proposing that corporate operators push the fact that they traditionally have a superb safety record to avoid some of the bureaucracy involved in qualifying for an aircraft operator’s certificate (AOC) designed for airlines. In order to maintain its traditional impressive safety record and protect its good name, business aviation needs to raise its game and provide more stringent quality checks on pilot ability and increase training where it sees a skills shortfall. Unlike the airlines, the sector has not yet established a common standard for refresher training. Scheduling can exacerbate the problem. But solutions are available; Horizon, for example, offers outsourced training for corporate operators. Such courses include: cockpit resource management: initial, recurrent and upgrades, Emergency and safety training (ESET) and first aid: initial safety training, recurrent ESET training. The company also offers crew selection, including assessment of flying skills, HUPEX (human potential explorer), psychological assessments, written test basic knowledge (ATPL), and simulator training for flight crews. It also provides upset recovery skills, pitch/power flying, plus conventional navigational exercises. Suggested solutions So what can the industry do to protect itself? There are several key areas to look at, the first being recruitment and how to pitch the profession to attract suitable wannabes. Horizon has an impressive track record in weeding out appropriate candidates for an aviation career. On average, more than 95% of its graduates are hired within eight months of completing their training, even in the last four years when jobs were scarce. The industry has to apply itself carefully to the screening process and not only that, it needs to promote itself to attract students in the first place, and to tackle some of the difficult issues, such as rostering. Business jet pilots often don’t know their schedules until the last minute, unlike airline pilots, who are aware of theirs two to four weeks in advance. This obviously has a negative impact on people’s lives and it is resolvable with careful planning. To tackle the problem of experienced business aviation pilots defecting to the airlines, it is vital that the industry promotes the advantages of working in the sector, such as opportunities for rapid career development in smaller teams, flying some of the world’s most sophisticated aircraft to destinations all over the world and the given flexibility of operation. Most of the world’s high fliers use business aircraft rather than flying with airlines. This demonstrates that there is a real need to select the right pilots, to treat them and train them well to qualify them for this highly demanding segment of aviation. The business aviation industry could take up the model adopted by many airlines, where companies work with training organisations to pre-select student pilots, who then pay for their own training, perhaps with a loan or a contribution towards the costs of their training from the company. The company then tracks its students’ progress and they stand a better chance of being hired by that organisation on completion. This would dramatically reduce the screening process for a business, as it will have tracked candidates through their training. The corporate aviation industry is advised to act now, or find itself with serious difficulties in the very near future.
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