‘A DESPERATE SHORTAGE’
Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics open house highlights need for airline mechanics
Aliyah Sevor well has never flown in an airplane but she is fascinated by the mechanics of flight.
That’s what prompted her to travel seven hours from New York’s Staten Island to attend an open house for prospective students at the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics in West Mifflin Saturday.
As a senior at Ralph R. McKee High School, Ms. Sevor well, 18, has been tinkering with automobiles. But as she moves toward graduation, she sees an opportunity for her mechanical skills to truly take flight with a career in aviation.
“It gives me more of a challenge to focus on,” she said. “It’s better for me because I like something to put my mind to and know I’m going to have to go through all of these difficult obstacles in order to get where I have to get. So it’s actually the perfect thing for me.”
Ms. Sevor well was one of about 160 potential students to cram into a campus hangar they shared with a Learjet and other small planes to hear about possible jobs as airline mechanics or electronics technicians.
There might not be a better time to see such dreams take off.
Josh Maxwell, a recruiter for PSA Airlines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Airlines, said there is a “desperate shortage” of airline mechanics in the industry.
“That’s felt by every company, on the East Coast, the West Coast, the north, the south. Every one of us is experiencing a shortage of aircraft mechanics,” he said.
Boeing estimates that nearly 200,000 new mechanics will be needed over the next 20 years. The current workforce is aging, with 76% of mechanics at least 50 years old, while less than 20% are 30 or younger.
That has led airlines to scour schools like the PIA to recruit workers to maintain their jets.
Mr. Maxwell was at the West Mifflin campus Saturday to make his pitch to prospective students. Salaries can start at as much as $50,000 per year, he said. To sweeten the pot, PSA provides new hires with a fully loaded toolbox worth $5,000 to help them do their work. There also could be signing or relocation bonuses.
The airline right now “is hiring as many qualified mechanics as we can.”
While PSA doesn’t have any maintenance jobs in Pittsburgh, it does have bases in Ohio in Canton/ Akron, Dayton, and Cincinnati. Other bases are in Norfolk, Va., Charlotte, N.C., Greenville, S.C., Savannah, Ga., and Pensacola, Fla.
The airline operates 50- to 70-seat Bombardier passenger jets.
PSA, which partners with the institute, makes it a point to attend the PIA open houses. It does so, Mr. Maxwell said, because some of the top mechanics at PSA and American Airlines have graduated from the institute.
“It’s a top-notch student. We want to be here to capture them before somebody else does,” he said.
For good reason. In 2018, Forbes Magazine named the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics its top twoyear trade school. According to statistics presented Saturday, about 91% of the students who graduate find jobs within six months.
At the Pittsburgh campus, tuition for the 21-month aviation maintenance technology program leading to an associate’s degree
Boeing estimates that nearly 200,000 new mechanics will be needed over the next 20 years. The current workforce is aging, with 76% of mechanics at least 50 years old, while less than 20% are 30 or younger.
runs $42,783, including books, tools, supplies, fees and tests. Tuition for the 21month aviation electronics technology is $41,521, including the same extras. About 250 students are enrolled at any one time.
The shortage of mechanics has sent demand so high that students at PIA campuses in West Mifflin, Youngstown, Hagerstown, Md., and Myrtle Beach, S.C., are getting five to six job offers even before they graduate, said Suzanne Markle, PIA president and CEO.
One student who is graduating at the end of March attended a job fair Wednesday and had three offers by Friday.
“It is really a shortage. There aren’t enough students graduating from schools like ours to fill the existing demand in the industry,” Ms. Markle said.
Over the last 18 months, thanks in part to the Forbes article, enrollment at PIA campuses has jumped about 20%, as students look for alternatives to traditional college.
One who found his way to West Mifflin on Saturday was Collin Rimkus, a high school senior in Logan, Ohio, about an hour from
Columbus. Mr. Rimkus, 18, has worked on motorcycle engines and Stihl chain saw, weed eater and leaf blower motors.
But the jet engine, he said, is “a whole different animal,” one he would like to tackle. He is leaning toward a career in aviation mechanics.
“I’ve always been interested in mechanics. i just thought it would be very interesting to work on airplanes,” he said.
Ms. Sevorwell, meanwhile, caught the aviation bug watching the “Transformers” series. One of the characters, Starscream, who morphs into a jet, caught her attention. She also likes to watch planes take off and land near her home.
One day she may be working on them. But first, she’d actually like to get on one.
“If I could at least be in an airplane for once, I would love it,” she said.