Up in the air
Redundant pilots look for work everywhere
In late 2019, Nathan Seaward started looking at ways to help pilots exit the cockpit in pursuit of a new career path. It was a niche business idea targeted at those wanting perhaps a lifestyle change or a side project to bring in a secondary income.
Then coronavirus came along and in the space of a month the global aviation sector had been flipped on its head.
With that came a wave of pilot and crew redundancies unlike anything the aviation sector has seen before.
‘‘Everybody has been shocked, particularly in aviation, at how quickly it happened,’’ Seaward said.
Seaward and his business partner, Martin Stork, launched cockpitcoaches.com about two months ago and since then have been helping pilots from around the world navigate a situation where flying planes may not be an option for the foreseeable future.
‘‘We pretty much jumped into it when we saw the writing on the wall.’’
The three-month programme, which costs US$1000 (NZ$1640), provides life coaching, online courses and networking and recruitment opportunities.
In some cases airlines were subsidising the course for pilots as part of their redundancy package and in other cases unions were sponsoring pilot members, he said.
Seaward, who has flown for Air New Zealand, Virgin Australia and most recently All Nippon Airways, said pilots were conscious that the industry was prone to volatility (think 9/11, the global financial crisis and the Sars epidemic).
But an event as devastating and wide-reaching as the coronavirus pandemic was something no one saw coming, he said.
‘‘It was extraordinary to me that we actually had something that grounded 90 per cent of the world’s fleet. I would never have come up with a scenario where that was the case.’’
In New Zealand, thousands of cabin crew and pilots have been left jobless or are facing an uncertain future.
Virgin Australia, which employed 208 New Zealand-based pilots, shut up shop here in late March. A further 300 pilots have been made redundant at Air New Zealand.
Meanwhile, the future of 127 Jetconnect and 81 Jetstar pilots in New Zealand is up in the air as parent company Qantas navigates its way through the crisis.
Seaward said most were realistic that they may not be able to get a flying job for the next few years at least.
The International Air Transport Association says the current state of the global air transport industry risks the loss of millions of jobs and its optimistic prediction is that 2019 levels of air travel will not be exceeded until 2023.
Seaward said he was trying to get pilots to look at the opportunities that could come from a crisis.
‘‘If we look back at our lives the toughest times have been the times that we’ve ended up growing.’’
In the past he had seen pilots generate secondary incomes by starting side projects in mortgage brokerage, aircraft sales, internet marketing and catering.
‘‘It’s probably been a wake-up call for those left high and dry trying to figure out now how to create some income,’’ he said.
Pilots could bring valuable skills to a workplace. ‘‘They are amazing leaders, they are incredibly professional, they’re used to handling responsibility and stress.’’
Pilots were trained leaders, he said.
‘‘They take in all the information around them and process it and make a decision. They are very similar to a manager and a CEO.’’
Former Virgin Australia pilot Mike Kenyon, who was made redundant in March, is currently looking for work from his home in Taupo¯ , preferably in civil aviation. Although he would love to fly again, he’s aware that’s not a given.
‘‘It’s something that obviously we would dearly like to see come back again. Maybe we don’t live in that world anymore.’’
Kenyon, whose father and brother are also pilots, got his pilot’s licence as an 18-year-old in 2003.
‘‘For me this has been an 18-year apprenticeship and one that you never really qualify from because there’s always so much more to learn. That’s what kept us in it and engaged and wanting to keep flying.’’
Pilots had many transferable skills, he said. They were particularly skilled in health and safety and project management.
Kenyon was aware of pilots becoming courier drivers and supermarket workers. There have also been reports of pilots picking vegetables and applying to become train drivers.
He had heard of redundant pilots being turned away from minimum wage jobs for being overqualified.
There was a perception that all pilots were well paid. However, a junior turboprop pilot started on about $70,000 while a jet pilot could earn $150,000 on average, he said.