THE chair of a parliamentary committee investigating regional air services has rejected claims regional airlines were being hit by a global pilot shortage.
West Australia Labor Senator Glenn Sterle threw water on claims by Regional Express the global pilot shortage was fuelling disruptions to scheduling.
Speaking at a public hearing in Mount Gambier this week, the senator revealed the committee asked the parliamentary library to “do a heck of a lot of work” looking into the pilot shortages.
“We rely heavily on that parliamentary library, which came back after their deliberations after a week or two and said there was no evidence of a pilot shortage,” Senator Sterle said.
“We were gobsmacked.”
Senator Sterle said he was stunned by the result given they were contemplating undertaking an inquiry into pilot shortages.
Regional Express earlier this month accused two national airline giants of “rapacious plundering” its pilot pool, which it says is causing disruptions to its scheduling.
In an open letter to regional communities, Rex chief operating officer Neville Howell said the aviation industry was being hit with a “global pilot shortage”.
“Regional aviation is the hardest hit as many local and international airlines actively poach pilots from Australia’s regional airlines to fill their own shortages,” Mr Howell said in the letter.
“Whilst Rex’s initiative is successful in responding to natural attrition rates, it is not enough to stave off Qantas and Virgin Australia’s rapacious plundering of Rex’s pilot pool instead of-using their not inconsiderable resources to train their own pilots.
“In the past two years, these two airlines collectively have poached 17pc and 56pc of Rex’s first officer and captain establishment respectively.
“These two airlines are causing widespread chaos and disruptions to regional air travel by their selfish and irresponsible actions.”
Because of the critical pilot shortage, Mr Howell said Rex was not able to have its usual contingent of stand-by pilots rostered for duty.
In response, Qantas said it was “strange” for a company to blame its competitor for its employee retention problems.
“Qantas serves many regional communities across Australia and we are proud we are an airline that many people want to work for,” a Qantas spokesperson said.
“It’s natural to see some movement between airlines from people seeking advancement, just like in every other industry.
“Our $20m pilot academy will train pilots not just for the Qantas Group, but for the industry more broadly – up to 500 a year.”
Virgin Australia also strongly rejected any suggestions it was impacting on regional air services through pilot recruitment.
“We have a comprehensive pilot recruitment and training process which includes running our own Virgin Australia cadetship program in partnership with Flight Training Adelaide and working with a number of Australian universities to provide input into their pilot training programs,” a spokesperson said.
More on the senate inquiry page 9
