Why Working as a Helicopter Engineer Could Be the Perfect Aviation Career For You
When most people think of the aviation industry, they most likely think of planes. Millions of flights take off and land...
Read full blogPrepared by Danny Brooks MBE, CEO Virtual Human Resources Ltd.
The aviation skills crisis is due to several factors as highlighted below, chief amongst these being BREXIT, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the ending for furlough prior to the lifting of flight restrictions. Airlines and the aviation supply chain having suffered huge losses throughout the Pandemic had to protect themselves through large scale redundancy programmes which led a huge exodus of workers from the industry. British Airways reduced its workforce by 10,000, EasyJet by 2,000 and Swissport 20,000 equating to a third of its workforce.
It is important to understand that UK is not the only nation suffering a shortage of skills in Aviation. The shortage spans the globe, although, the UK is suffering to a greater extent due to the effects of Brexit on immigration curtailing the supply of the Labour pool.
Below I seek to briefly outline the issues the aviation sector is facing, what has happened to the workforce and mitigations. It is important that policies created to address the current crisis are part of a joined-up approach that consider all parties in the aviation supply chain not just the operators; after all there is no point being able to staff an entire airline when there are no baggage handlers to offload the baggage. There is no easy short-term fix and policies should not ignore the medium and long term if they want to build a sustainable aviation sector.
As if the UK Aviation Sector was not suffering enough there are further external factors that are compounding the issues. Air Traffic Control Issues across Europe through system upgrades (France in particular) and strike Action have increased the likelihood of delays and cancellations as has airspace Closures due to the war in Ukraine adding congestion to the skies.
Introduction of a scheme akin to the HGV drivers that allowed the relaxation of immigration rules for a temporary period to allow the entire aviation supply chain recruit in a controlled manner the required skills from abroad whilst the UK recruits and trains local workers.
Recruitment and training of newly migrated Ukrainian workers including English classes so that they may join the Aviation Sector.
Improve timescales for processing of Airside Passes
Assessment and modification where required of immigration policies for the aviation sector to allow controlled migration.
Incentives to the Aviation Industry to train sufficient volumes of staff.
Operators and Suppliers to work together to promote the industry including costing in realistic salaries
Review Lessons learned from the COVID Pandemic and the approach of other European Governments to avoid the current circumstances.
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