Career Focus - Aerospace

Check out the pay, prospects, players and key talking points of careers in aviation 2007-8.

The Pay

Useful link(s)
Int'l Fed of Airline Pilots' Associations
NATS
BASSA (British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association)
Royal Aeronautical Society


• Pay rise for Airbus pilots?
  A new Singapore court ruling could mean pay rises for Airbus A380 pilots. The Court ruled that A380 pilots should get an extra £230 a month than the min. pay for flying a Boeing 747. Singapore Airlines is the first user of the A380, and it’s expected that the ruling could set a precedent and spark similar claims from pilots at other carriers.
• Virgin cabin crew not feeling valued
  The reportedly paltry 2% pay rise offer made by Virgin Atlantic has done little to appease its cabin crew. 4,000 Virgin Atlantic cabin crew look set to strike over the August bank holiday weekend after pay talks with the airline collapsed.
• BA pensions and pay back on track?
  Virgin Atlantic cabin crew may have been more riled by the news that BA settled on a 4.6% pay deal for its cabin crew, and it hasn’t stopped there – the airline has now offered, and staff endorsed, a 18.75% rise in cabin crew’s pensionable pay.

The propspects

• Desperately seeking aero engineers
  The shortage of aero engineers is still making headlines both sides of the Atlantic. Boeing estimates that some 27% of all the US aerospace engineers are eligible for retirement by the end of 2008, which will inevitably exacerbate the problem. In the UK, meanwhile, the problem isn’t exactly helped by the lack of training available. There are very few training providers – BA and Virgin Atlantic offer a limited no. of places, as does Marshalls of Cambridge, but that’s about it, while students at the new Newcastle Aviation Academy have had a mixed reception by industry – the academy admits there seems to be a perception that it’s training academics.
• Similar story with Air traffic control
  ...in the US, at least, where the ATC staff shortage is now the no. 1 story in the industry, with the Federal Aviation Administration reporting a drop in staffing for the third year straight. It’s a different story in the UK, however, where NATS, criticised for being the third most expensive air traffic controller, has been forced to cut prices on its en-route business by 3.4% annually during 2006-2010, leading to speculation about more job cuts (though NATS says its aim is to re-deploy).
• Sky’s the limit for commercial pilots
  With the British Transport Association reporting that the no. of domestic and international flights departing the UK has grown by more than 20% over the past three years, demand should be on the rise for commercial pilots – once, that is, they sort out the small matter of training funding. Today’s student commercial pilots can expect to pay £50k-£60k for a European Joint Aviation Authorities-approved APPFO course, depending on where they complete their training.

THE TALKING POINTS

Great places to network
Professional Pilots' Rumour Network
(not just for pilots – cabin crew also have a good forum here). Get the inside track and real answers to your real questions about working in the airline industry.
Aeroengineer.com
Another online forum, this time for engineers, but this one’s more basic/beginners’ level

• Sky-high sweatshops?
  We know that turnarounds are tight, but now it seems some airlines are requiring staff not only to ensure the safe embarkation and disembarkation of passengers, but also to clean and re-stock the aircraft in less than 15 mins. As a result, some cabin crew are unable to take a rest break at any time during their shift. If the cabin crew were on ground-based duties, this practice would be a breach of the working time regulations and health and safety legislation, but there’s a loophole in the legislation that means it doesn’t cover crew once they’re airborne. With unions now onto it, it won’t stay a loophole for long.
• Age-old problems
  The whole retirement age issue is, to be frank, still a bit of a hotchpotch since the introduction of the UK’s Employment Equality (Age Discrimination) Regulations 2006. BA’s just upped its retirement age for pilots (and cabin crew) to 60, but there are now some other countries and airlines operating retirement ages of 65. The International Civil Aviation Organisation has weighed in with a new standard allowing pilots to fly to 65 if the other pilot in the cockpit is younger than 60. Confused? Cabin crew, meanwhile, have just won a small victory over Virgin Blue in Australia – it finally lost its long-running legal battle with eight women who claimed the airline refused them employment as airhostesses because they were too old. At the time, Virgin Blue’s recruiting system rejected applicants over 36 in Australia.
• The unsavoury sexist story…
  The percentage of women pilots and aero engineers stands at a stubborn 5%...