Leveling the Global Aviation Playing Field

The aviation industry has been around for a century, between airlines, corporate, cargo, and charter services, it has thrived for quite a long time. Throughout the years though, there have been many things that have threatened aeronautical commerce including high fuel prices, cheap labor, and the public perception of aviation. Today, we face many of the same risks, fuel prices are through the roof, pilot pay keeps getting cut and the view of aviation by the public degrades every time a plane crashes. "When jet-fuel prices rise rapidly, airlines have limited options to mitigate these costs, principally generating more revenue or decreasing nonfuel expenses. As fuel prices increase, flights become less profitable so airlines may also reduce capacity, and some carriers already have reported downward growth plans. (Heimlich, n.d.)" This is a real problem that faces our industry, if airlines have to cut routes to remain profitable, then it won’t be long until they will go bankrupt or continue to merge and get bought out by larger airlines. This will happen until there are only a few airlines left that will have complete control on the industry. This only accounts for the airlines, corporate divisions, charter operations, cargo and general aviation all suffer every time fuel prices raise. Today more than ever, there are less and less people flying their own aircraft because they simply cannot afford to fly them due to the high cost of avgas. Corporations are cutting down or even eliminating their aviation divisions for this same reason, without corporate jets flying in to pay landing fees and buying jet fuel, local general aviation airports will no longer bring in enough money to support themselves or the community.

            Another hazard to aviation is the fact that young pilots trying to get their foot in the door are desperate to build flight time. When a hopeful airline pilot gets offered a job to fly jet aircraft for a regional airline, he doesn’t care how little he will get paid, the only thing on his mind is the experience he will build. This is not a good thing due to the fact that pilots will underbid each other just to get ahead in their career, after a while, they will get paid so little that they will be unable to pay bills let alone for their student loans that they took out to finance their flight training. “Recent salary records show that a rookie first officer on a regional airline flying out of San Francisco International Airport may be paid less than the worker who washes the airport’s windows. (Finck & Breuner, 2011)” This is ridiculous, the fact that low time pilots have gone this low on the pay scale while the cost of flight training is so astronomically high is insane. A high school student looking towards his or her future will look at the cost of flight education, which is around $100,000, and then look up their future salary as a regional airline pilot, which is right around $20,000 for first year pay, and make up their mind that it is just too much money to even think about flying for a living. Unless they are madly in love with flying, they will write off the possibility of ever flying for a living and choose another career path. I know this because I did this as a high school student; I started my first year of college thinking that I was going to be a mechanical engineer technician but because of my job at the local airport, I found my true passion to be in aviation and I have since then worked my butt off to get through flight training. Airline companies know this and use it against their employees, they know we will never want to quit flying, that we will eat noodles every day just to have a job flying. But after enough years of this, there will be no more kids looking up towards the sky wanting to fly because they were never introduced to it by their parents because they couldn’t afford the fuel for the plane let alone to buy an aircraft.

            From here we move to the public perception of aviation, every time a car crashes, little is said but a quick 10 second story on the 5pm news. But the second a plane crashes, no matter how small or insignificant, it is blasted onto the national news. Last year in Monroe County Michigan, a light sport airplane was on approach to a private grass strip when the pilot got low on approach and clipped the power lines that paralleled the road. This is a quote from one of the reports on the crash, “Sgt. Jeff Kemp said in a release that both men suffered minor injuries and were taken by ambulance to Mercy Memorial Hospital as a precautionary measure. (Oosting, 2012)” This proves that even though they both had only minor injuries the media has to blast the story way out of proportion because there was a video of it and plane crashes are sensational. This and countless other stories like it have shed a lot of bad light on the aviation industry. Every time I get onto an airliner, during the takeoff sequence, everyone in the cabin closes their eyes and puts their heads down in fear of their possible demise. I find it very interesting that statistically they have a much greater chance of being killed on their way to the airport in their own car then during the flight, yet they fear for their lives every time they fly. This is due to a few factors, but the biggest is the fact that the media shows flying as a dangerous medium of travel because of its sensationalism whenever something does go wrong. Another is the fact that whenever an airliner crashes, many people die, but whenever a car crashes, only a few may perish. “In absolute numbers, driving is more dangerous, with more than 5 million accidents compared to 20 accidents in flying. A more direct comparison per 100 million miles pits driving's 1.27 fatalities and 80 injuries against flying's lack of deaths and almost no injuries, which again shows air travel to be safer. (Locsin, n.d.)” This is horrible for the aviation community, if a child is brought up to fear flying, then how are we going to recruit them to fly for a living? The public perception of danger in aviation is just adding to the pilot shortage because of this.

Finck, K., & Breuner, B. (2011, September 1). Pilots can earn less than airport window washers. California Watch. Retrieved September 29, 2013, from http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/pilots-can-earn-less-airport-window-washers-12398

Heimlich, J. (n.d.).  The Price of Jet Fuel and Its Impact on U.S. Airlines. The Price of Jet Fuel and Its Impact on U.S. Airlines. Retrieved September 29, 2013, from http://www.airlines.org/Pages/The-Price-of-Jet-Fuel-and-Its-Impact-on-U.S.-Airlines.aspx

Locsin, A. (n.d.). Is Air Travel Safer Than Car Travel? Travel Tips. Retrieved September 29, 2013, from http://traveltips.usatoday.com/air-travel-safer-car-travel-1581.html

Oosting, J. (2012, August 13). Video: Passenger records plane crash, frantic aftermath in Monroe County. MLive.com. Retrieved September 29, 2013, from http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/08/video_passenger_records_plane.html