Final Blog!

Here we go, Last blog!

So, at the beginning of this semester my career path game plan was to finish up here at Eastern Michigan University in the flight program, to start flight instructing then move on to a regional airline for a while and hopefully end up at a legacy airline, just like most of the flight program here at EMU.

Throughout the semester what I want to do has stayed the same and some of the guest speakers such as Mr. Wall and Mr. Coogan both from Delta Airlines that came to class has just made me want to do that more!

This semester I would say my favorite blog topic was the one about Comair because I have spent a lot of time in the Cincinnati airport (former Comair headquarters) since I was a small child and have flown on at least 50 of there flights. I always had a dream of one day working there but obviously those dreams are over. My least favorite topic was the EU ETS one because it just turned into a huge argument about whether we should be green or not.

I would say out of the guest speakers we had this semester I retained the most information from Mr. Coogan and Mr. Wall because they are both doing exactly what I want to for my last career stop!

As far as after graduation my plans for professional development is to fly as many different aircraft that I can get my hands on, build a whole bunch of flight experience, and maybe one day get an online masters degree though Embry Riddle but it will most likely I will only do that if it is required for a job I am applying for.

Happy Holidays!

EU Emission Trading Scheme

This weeks blog topic is about the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) this is a process developed by the European Union to reduce carbon emissions. We are going to explore what ever this is.

The EU Emission Trading Scheme is set up between the individual states in the European Union, the way this works is each year the states are allocated a certain amount of "allowances" for carbon emissions that can be emitted in each state, one allowance is equal to one ton of carbon emissions. The incentive to the system is in the case that the state does not use all of its allowance it is able to sell the remaining allowances to states that screw up and use more than their allowance. (Further information located here)

This system seems like a great idea to reduce the overall carbon emissions being released form the European Union however the United States and other countries are opposed to participation in the Emission Trading System because of the strain it puts on the American commercial airline operators in the area of the European Union. Since January foreign air carriers have been forced to buy EU ETS credits in order to pollute the Europeans air however they will not have to pay until next year (See more). Even with all of the opposition from the United States, China, India, Russia, and other large countries that operate aircraft in the EU officials in the EU are standing by there choice to enact ETS. The EU officials have made statements regarding a worldwide potential ICAO operated emission reduction system for aviation.

As stated above the air carriers will not have to pay for these EU credits until next year and until then ICAO has been tasked with creating a new carbon emission reduction system that will probably also result in unnecessary credit purchases. Personally I think that the solution to this issue should be no solution. I think that many American air carriers have already proven how difficult it is to make it financially without government aid and I think this will just make it even more difficult.

As I previously stated I don't think that there should be any solutions to carbon emissions for the aviation world, if they care so much about carbon emission start somewhere else before you nickle and dime air carriers that are already hanging on by a thread.

NextGen

The FAA is currently formulating a plan to revitalize the current air traffic control system to make flying safer, sustainable, flexible and more economically friendly, there plan to do this is called Next Generation Air Traffic Control otherwise known simply as 'NextGen". 

According to the FAA there are four main "pillars" to this system and they all are very important to the future of air travel and air commerce. 

In the order of most importance (to me):

1.     Safety: Obviously safety is the most important thing to the FAA and to all aviators in general. This new system above and beyond the additional benefits is suppose to be taking leaps and bounds over the current air traffic control system as far as safety goes by providing more accurate aircraft locations, up to date weather information and airspace status information.

2.     Economic Impact: Clearly aviation isn't quite what it once was, there is not as much money to be made in it as there once was and over all the economy isn't particularly doing well, next generation air traffic control is suppose to be not only a job creator but a money saver for airlines and aircraft owners alike.

3.     Flexibility: With updated performance based navigation (PBN) air traffic control can free the skies up and allow the old methods of routing to be eliminated and replaced with more direct routing to make for a more efficient flight.

4.     Sustainability: Lastly sustainability, sustainability is of course also very important but in my opinion will just be provided with the first three pillars alone. the importance of this is providing ways to make better noise abatement procedures to make the airport environment more friendly and reduction in carbon emissions which is obviously very important to the economy.

Obviously there are some upfront costs in the implementation of such a vast and technologically advanced system, there has been talk among the aviation world of potential user fees for aviation, depending on the way these fees are implemented general aviation and corporate aviation. I believe that these user fees should be applied to foreign carriers to reduce their profitability in America and let American carriers replace their routes at a more affordable cost although I would rather just see user fees never come to fruition. (Article from AOPAabout user fees on GA businesses)

User fees could have a significant effect on my career depending where they are applied. User fees applied to general aviation (very unlikely in my opinion) could significantly impact the cost of flight training making my time as a flight instructor very challenging. The most likely option for these fees would be applied to part 121 and 135 carriers, and because I eventually plan to work within one of these operations this could significantly affect the profitability of whatever company I am working for. 

In July of this year Hawker Beechcraft sold its business jet and general aviation division of operations to Superior Aviation in Beijing, additionally as of late other aviation manufacturers are following suit by moving portions of operation overseas.

Cessna is an example of another "General Aviation" manufacture that now has ties to China. In March Cessna made a deal with Aviation Industry Corp. of China (Cessna in China) to build midsize business jets and to "Explore other Opportunities" in China such as development of new aircraft. An interesting note about Aviation Industry Corp. of China is that it is a state owned company in other words it is owned by the government of China. There has to be a reason of course that Cessna is making a drastic move like this, and the answer is simple, its money. In China Cessna can pay workers next to nothing to do the same work that an American worker can do and clearly all of the manufacturers are taking advantage of this. In the past Cessna has always produced most of there aircraft in Kansas (Cessna headquarters) this shift of manufacturing and development will certainly take job opportunities from American workers. Recently, Bombardier and Gulfstream have both made ties to China for similar purposes.

There is of course other reasons why there has been a shift to China by all of these general aviation manufactures probably one of the most relevant is that the Chinese is also the customer, in the past ten years general aviation has grown exponentially in China mostly because the economy is growing so rapidly there and because of that business's have money to buy aircraft.

On paper the cuts in America and the growth in china seems like a bad deal for America, however this can be a jackpot for pilots all over, specifically because there is not that many pilots in China so they are forced to outsource which means very lucrative job opportunity for everyone.

Goodbye Comair

In its hey day Comair was the place to be for both pilots and flight attendants, it had higher pay with a better schedule and a better contract, it was smooth sailing. As we discussed last week airlines are very concerned with there bottom line and trying to keep as competitive as possible and we will be discussing how this failed for Comair.

I would say that personally I have a special connection to Comair, being that my Dad has worked for Delta Airlines (who wholly owned Comair from 1999 until operations ceased) for over thirty years and ever since I can remember "Non-Reving" between Detroit and Cincinnati (where my Dad is based) Comair had been the only operator (until recent) so clearly I have spend several hundred hours aboard there aircraft.

Comair started operation in the spring of 1977 based of of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport flying 2 Piper Navajo aircraft on scheduled routes under its parent company Comair Holdings. As operations begin to expand and it was time to upgrade the fleet Comair became a public company in 1981. Further down the road Comair acquired a contract flying primarily the Embraer 110's/120's and Saab 340's as a Delta Connection Carrier which led to Delta purchasing a 20% share of Comair in 1986 and later purchasing 100% of the airline in 1999. Around this time things were going well at Comair, the company was profitable and continued to grow until March of 2001, when unhappy pilots went on strike over contract disputes and because of this operations ceased for 89 days when a new contract was agreed upon. This was strike one that led to the overall demise of the airline, the new contract had the pilots getting paid more than any other airline severely hurting their overall profitability. The next strike against Comair which is actually effecting all regional airlines is the rising cost of jet fuel and ever since 1993 Comair had been flying Canadair Regional Jets (CRJ) which is historically much less fuel efficient than previous aircraft that Comair had operated. Strike three that led to Comair's failure was what we had been talked about previously was the extreme competition that all airlines have recently started engaging in, because of the overall loss of profitability Comair just couldn't get there bottom line as low as the other regional airlines. The writing was on the wall for Comair it was just a matter of time before they would be shut down or sold off and unfortunately Delta shut down operations September 29th, 2012.

Overall the outlook at regional airlines could be grim primarily because the lack of profitability caused by this competition that we keep talking about. Bottom line is the regional airlines on there own are just not making any money and this is causing them to do the same thing that the majors are doing which is to merge, recently Skywest has acquired Expressjet who also acquired Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) and Pinnacle has acquired Mesaba. These regionals are forming what I like to call super regionals so they can all be not profitable or barely profitable together. Of course there are other factors that are effecting the regionals which is partially the change of the way the the major airlines are doing business, they are shying away from the regional jet craze which fueled the hub and spoke style airline and instead not offering service in many places and just focusing on flights from major city to major city.

Finally time for the job search, lets see how many hours I am away from starting as a regional first officer. I selected Expressjet to look up and see any potential hiring and I found on AirlinePilotCentral.com that Expressjet is hiring with a minimum of 1200 hours total time, 50 hours of multi-engine time and they prefer a 4 year degree. Also, on the same website there is a pay scale, as a first year first officer a new hire could expect to make $23 an hour with a 75 hour monthly minimum so with a little bit of math-magic that comes out to a whopping $20700 and that is what I will do for multi-turbine time.

The Luxury of Flight

First off, flying is not cheap public transportation flying however flying on commercial airlines should be kept relatively affordable; however clearly with all of the concern over lack of profitability from U.S. air carriers something must be done. Looking upon the past flying on commercial airlines has been a very luxurious experience but slowly ever since the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 (Deregulation Act of 1978) where the government lifted control of fares and routing it has been a frenzy for the airlines to compete until prices came to where they are today which are historically extremely low even with inflation of the U.S. dollar. Additionally to reduced government control on the industry it also made it drastically easier for new airlines to start up. Many of these new airlines were what are called today “Low Cost Airlines” which even drove the cost of airline tickets further downward.

So how would I propose we make the industry more profitable and maintain the approximately the same cost? first you can start out with cutting all of the ridiculous taxes (Ticket Taxes)placed on each and every ticket but keeping the actual cost of the ticket (Tax included vs. Tax not included) the same making that taxed portion a profit which would be good, but of course this is not fool proof, It is the companies responsibility to make the pricing decision, they could just reduce the cost that much more and be right back to where we are now, but at the end of the day it is a free market economy and it is not the responsibility of the government or the people to keep these airlines in business, if they want to run themselves into the ground then so be it.

With the cost of airline tickets being so unbelievably cheap in many cases it is now cheaper to fly than drive. There are many reasons as to why this has happened but I can at least speculate about a few. First the addition of regional airlines, in the past there were no such thing of a low cost regional operator, another could be the extremely increased fuel economy per passenger on airlines versus the minor gains in the automobile world, and the decreased wages across the board in the airline industry which is further driving the prices down.

In the event that my ideas about how to fix this mess of an industry are ignored (highly probable) and the industry focuses more toward a luxurious experience I would for see less overall flying total because the demand would clearly drop, a result of this drop would be less job availability for those of us aiming for the airlines like myself, additionally I would expect to see the regional (low cost) airlines either cease to exist or rework there business model to serve the needs of this new demand. These things could be considered negative to some who are exploring the options of the airlines but it would not all be bad, I would not be surprised to see higher wages for airline employees due to the higher profitability that would be attained through this scenario.

These are just some of the things that go through my mind, who knows what the future will hold for all of us looking toward the airlines!

Public Law 111-216

On February 12, 2009 Colgan Air flight 3407 crashed just outside of the outer marker on the ILS runway 23 approach into Buffalo Niagara International Airport (KBUF). Flight 3407 was just like any other flight from Newark airport to Buffalo aboard a Bombardier Q400 (Dash-8) piloted by Captain Marvin Renslow and First Officer Rebecca Shaw. Clearly there is a reason this airplane crashed and according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) the accident was caused by an inadvertent stall and was the result of pilot error, they also went on to say that it was specifically the pilots’ inability to respond properly to the stall warned they received (stick shaker) possibly due to improper training and lack of aeronautical experience. All 49 people aboard this flight were killed including 1 person on the ground in the house the airplane struck in Clarence Center, New York.

As history shows aviation regulations are written in blood and clearly this accident deserves its own regulation and in 2010 President Barrack Obama signed Public Law 111-216 otherwise known as Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010, basically PL 111-216 is a reaction to Colgan flight 3407 and several other accidents in the past that could possibly be a result of crew training. Public Law 111-216 only effects Part 121 operations and requires increased safety standards such as: a more stringent training process for airlines, any First Officer to have at least an Airline Transport Pilot Certificate (ATP) which would require 1500 hours of total flight time, and more pilot duty time regulations. More can be seen here: http://www.3407memorial.com/index.php/component/content/article/133-pl-111-216-has-been-signed-into-law.

These new regulations which will be effective summer 2013 has great potential to completely change my career pathway. Currently to obtain a job as a First Officer at a part 121 regional airline requires a minimum of multi-engine commercial certificate and an instrument rating (AMEL & Instrument Airplane) now I will be required to obtain an ATP certificate which instead of being obtained upon graduation it will require an additional up to 1000 hours of flight experience and require myself being 23 years of age (Note I will be most likely graduating at age 20, fingers crossed) which is required for an ATP certificate http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=8fcaa9a25ef98dbf2964a25718f42df8&rgn=div8&view=text&node=14:2.0.1.1.2.7.1.6&idno=14. Honestly, I see no benefit in this for myself to me this seems like I will have to flight instruct or find some other means of accruing flight experience for several years. However, (again fingers crossed) if Eastern Michigan Universities (Eagle Flight Center) flight program will qualify as a accredited Part 141 flight school and becomes eligible to train ATP applicants we all in this flight training program could be exempt from this ridiculous amount of flight training requirements and be subjected to a more lenient requirements, this could be a very beneficial thing and get me on my career path just about as planned.

Personally I think this regulation is slightly ridiculous particularly the aeronautical experience requirements. Clearly something had to be done, and many accidents can be accredited to some of these issues addressed above but I think that these issues can be avoided through additional company training such as the requirement of a longer period of flying with an Airline Check Captain/Instructor with intensified scenario based training on the areas specified in the document linked above. By doing all of this I think many of these regulations can be avoided without compromising safety.