According to the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC), air transport accounts for more than 600 companies nationally. It is subdivided into various sectors including the hiring of air taxis, short runs, wide-body aircraft, the corporate transport industry, piloting schools and aerial work (e.g. helicopter transport for mineral exploration)
Needs to be filled
According to the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC), air transport accounts for more than 600 companies nationally. It is subdivided into various sectors including the hiring of air taxis, short runs, wide-body aircraft, the corporate transport industry, piloting schools and aerial work (e.g. helicopter transport for mineral exploration).
Like aerospace, air transport suffered from the economic crisis of 2008–2009. Even after the recovery, John McKenna, ATAC President and CEO, acknowledges a perverse effect in the longer term as regards the availability of labour needed in order to grow. “We already knew that we were heading towards a pilot shortage, but this has been getting worse. In light of current conditions—with no demand for pilots—young people have gone into other fields. Since 2015, we have felt the effects of this desertion in a big way,” he says.
Mr. McKenna feels that the problem is two-fold. “The sector is having a lot of difficulty finding experienced pilots with more than 1,000 or 1,200 hours flight time. At the same time, new graduate pilots have a tough time acquiring experience and flight time, since they can’t find jobs because demand is less than normal as a result of the recession,” he deplores.
It’s a spiral we will have to climb out off sooner or later, since forecasts indicate a demand for 200,000 pilots worldwide by 2020—a huge number.
The 2016-2018 perspectives survey of job bank Canada confirms this trend in airport transportation employment.
The most beautiful office in the world!
It is not only pilots who are needed in air transport. Maintenance technicians, air controllers, managers, etc. are also in demand. Situation can vary from one province to another though: the demand is high in Quebec and British Columbia, while it is acceptable in Ontario and weak in Alberta and Maritimes.
“Workers are hard to find for maintenance, because of the competition with the aerospace industry, which hires the same technicians—in avionics, for example,” explains John McKenna.
He adds that women—who are still a minority in this field—are also welcome. ATAC says that women account for only 8.28% of pilots, 7,5% of avionics mechanics, technicians and controllers, and 22.4% of air controllers. Conversely, 72.5% of cabin managers and flight attendants are women.
And yet, there are many advantages to working in air transport. “An aircraft at 10,000 metres of altitude is the most beautiful office in the world,” exclaims John McKenna, waxing poetic as he describes working as a pilot. The job is intense and also involves continuous professional advancement, since you can start out piloting small aircraft and move up to bigger models with experience. Plus, there is always something new to be learned, training on new aircraft and practising on flight simulators.
Regardless of the air transport job—from technician to pilot—you have the opportunity to work with high-tech equipment, in a stimulating environment where jobs are plentiful.