newstodate.aero
Mar 18, 2015 (newstodate): Even if the European economies are still not up to the beat, the market demand for air travel seems to be insatiable.
-One proof of this growth trend in air travel is the fact that there is really not much aircraft capacity available in the market. So when we add new aircraft to the fleet, the capacity is soon taken by charter or ACMI customers, says Vytautas Kaikaris, Small Planet Airlines CEO.
-But new challenges are arising: the future bottle-neck will be a shortage of aircraft crews, replacing the challenge of aircraft sourcing. Especially captains will become a scarce resource in the future.
-The increasing shortage of European cockpit crews, especially captains, is due mainly to the sharp growth in aviation business in Asia and the Middle East, taking a rising stake in the provision of flight crews. We can still find cockpit crews in the Greek, French and Italian markets but overall the situation is getting rather tough.
-The problem is that even if we as an airline are taking steps into the Asian markets to secure business during the slack winter season, ours is still primarily a seasonal business, peaking during the summer. And European pilots naturally prefer long-term year-round employment rather than seasonal occupation.
-The net effect will become rising costs as provision of pilots will become an increasingly scarce resource, but we are mulling plans to remedy this development, says Mr Kaikaris.
-One proof of this growth trend in air travel is the fact that there is really not much aircraft capacity available in the market. So when we add new aircraft to the fleet, the capacity is soon taken by charter or ACMI customers, says Vytautas Kaikaris, Small Planet Airlines CEO.
-But new challenges are arising: the future bottle-neck will be a shortage of aircraft crews, replacing the challenge of aircraft sourcing. Especially captains will become a scarce resource in the future.
-The increasing shortage of European cockpit crews, especially captains, is due mainly to the sharp growth in aviation business in Asia and the Middle East, taking a rising stake in the provision of flight crews. We can still find cockpit crews in the Greek, French and Italian markets but overall the situation is getting rather tough.
-The problem is that even if we as an airline are taking steps into the Asian markets to secure business during the slack winter season, ours is still primarily a seasonal business, peaking during the summer. And European pilots naturally prefer long-term year-round employment rather than seasonal occupation.
-The net effect will become rising costs as provision of pilots will become an increasingly scarce resource, but we are mulling plans to remedy this development, says Mr Kaikaris.