A shortage of experienced captains could mean better pay and perks for those who are in the market and increased training and internal promotions for less experienced flyers.
As the industry starts to recover, airlines will naturally be examining their expansion options, taking on more aircraft and routes.
"A lot of commercial airlines and operators are finding business is improving," says Andrew Middleton, international business development manager of recruitment consultancy Wynnwith, "but more routes and more aircraft mean they need more pilots.
"Airlines are already planning recruitment campaigns for next summer and are worried about a possible shortage."
With competition likely to heat up for experienced commanders, Middleton believes that airlines will begin to offer higher salaries and better packages to remain competitive, especially for temporary crew members.
Smaller airlines unable to break the bank to compete with the larger players and the big no-frills carriers may find themselves unable to attract experienced captains.
"Some of our smaller customers are starting to do their own training," says Middleton. "That's the only way they will get qualified crews."
Scottish operator Loganair, which employs around 80 pilots, recruited nobody for the 18 months after the September 2001 terrorists attacks, because none of their pilots left during that time. Since then, however, several of their captains have been poached by larger airlines.
"We're at the lower end of the food chain, really," says Doug Akhurst, Loganair's director of flight operations, "so we're a reasonable source of experienced pilots for the likes of EasyJet. When the jet operations start to recruit, the impact soon rattles through to our level of operation."
Loganair's response has been to train and promote extensively from within.
"Over the past year or so we have promoted around 10 first officers to commands," says Akhurst. "That has worked well, but if we were to have significant expansion, we could be looking for direct entry commands because of the demographic profile."
He says that recruiting low-time first officers remains relatively simple and training these pilots rather than aiming directly for high-level captains carries a number of benefits for a company of Loganair's size and may even represent better value for money.
"We like to promote from within as it shows there are career progression prospects within the company," he says, "and it also means we're putting people into the left-hand seat who understand the company culture.
"It's the responsibility of the airlines to train their pilots. I remain to be convinced there is always a significant cost saving in recruiting someone type qualified unless you can be certain of the appropriateness of their experience and the integrity of the training they've had."
The danger in recruiting pilots with limited flight time, as far as Akhurst is concerned, is with candidates who have had a significant amount of time out of work after gaining their licence.
"This can present a training risk," he says.
The recovering market evidently presents opportunities for some captains to improve on their current deals, but may also help first officers advance more quickly.
Source: Flight International
