Not Just Boeing and Airbus Leading Commercial Aviation?

As you may know, Airbus and Boeing will soon have some more competition brought into their commercial aviation monopoly. China's new aircraft, the C919 produced by Comac is scheduled to be delivered in 2018. Currently it is not certified by the FAA, but the airplane is still in its early stages. I am certain it will be certified before 2020. The airplane will be a direct competitor to Airbus's A320 and Boeing's 737 so I am sure if it is placed at a competitive price companies will be purchasing it.

Once certified, I think one of the challenges U.S. carriers with service using the Chinese aircraft will see is a shortage or price increase for parts regarding. There will have to be U.S. companies manufacturing the parts to specifications or more importations from the Chinese. Even though that may be an issue in the beginning, Comac hopes to sell 2,000 aircraft in the next 20 years (Jiang, 2015). As long as the aircraft manufacturing goes well and there aren't any large issues with it after manufacturing it should be a pretty simple feat, especially when they already have 517 orders before the first test flight.

In regards to the public perception of the new Chinese aircraft, I don't think it will be bad towards the new airplane. Airbus has been operating in the U.S. for years and hundreds of people choose to fly them every day. As long as there are not any large issues with the airplane I don't see any issues with it being accepted into the NAS.

Comac's C919 is part of a seven year mandated drive to restrict China's reliance on foreign imports. The company also has a smaller jet, the ARJ, that is far behind schedule, but there nonetheless (First China-made passenger, 2015). They also have a large body aircraft, the C929 in the works, but those aircraft seem like they aren't the priority.

I think many countries will love the competition that will in turn drive down aircraft costs and hopefully raise their profits. It will be an interesting thing to see as a new commercial airliner competitor comes to the market.

References

First China-made passenger jet leaves production line (2015, November 2). In Aljazeera. Retrieved from http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/china-passenger-jet-leaves-production-line-151102054428051.html

Jiang, S. (2015, November 2). China to take on Boeing, Airbus with homegrown C919 passenger jet. In CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/02/asia/china-new-c919-passenger-jet/index.html

Regional Airlines and Professionalism in the Industry

It is well known that the aviation industry is and has been feeling the effects of the anticipated pilot shortage. Thousands of pilots are needed to be hired in the next few years. The regional airline industry is the largest in need of these pilots. It is also known that the starting pay for regionals is very low with high work hours and minimal benefits. The industry has known that the shortage was coming for many years, but nothing changed. The pilot shortage is definitely a real thing, but there is an argument on the true cause of it. I think that it truly is a shortage and there are not enough pilots to fill the cockpits, but regional airline pay and professionalism may have some sort of blame to this. They have been growing very quickly in the past two decades and haven't given much to pilot's other than more work hours to include on their already overworked schedule. Recently there have been a few pay increases which will make the industry a little more manageable (Fact and Fallacy, 2016).

The regional industry's lifestyle towards pilots may have been what put them in this shortage in the first place. Without any sort of returnable pay after these pilots spend upwards of $100,000 or more on training a $20,000 starting salary does not sound very appealing. With the regional airlines flying more than half of the domestic U.S. routes there should have been some planning to make their industry more appealing for incoming pilots to come to them (Leocha, 2010). The easiest problem to see is pay, but on top of that there are benefits, workday hours, and company respect.

There is definitely an actual shortage of pilots in the industry, especially with so many retiring in the next few years. Those pilots retiring from the mainlines will open positions to the pilots high in seniority in the regionals and drain the pilot roster from the bottom. There will strictly not be enough pilots to continue flying all of the routes. Although this is not only a problem with the shortage of pilots. The regional carriers have grown too quickly and have not created an incentive to bring more pilots in. Flight school is a very, very expensive venture to undertake. As a flight student I can personally accord to that. The Regional Airlines Association has been trying to encourage students at the high school and collegiate level to try aviation with incentives such as bridge programs and gateway programs to get them to the regional airlines quicker (The Coming U.S. Pilot, 2015). That is a good start, but what they should really be doing is giving opportunities such as training cost compensation for guaranteed pilots or more competitive and attractive salaries to get more certified pilots to want to join the ranks in the first place.

Professionalism is having a quality and skill expected for a task that will also represent a company in a desirable manner. Pilots should take better care to their training/aircraft knowledge and know that it will directly relate to their personal and passengers' safety. An airline's management has to understand that pilots are only human and will make mistakes, but those mistakes can be exponentially increased when they are working long hours in less than satisfactory environments. It is also management's responsibility to ensure the quality of the training given to pilots is in compliance with the industry's standards and that pilots are fully capable of maintaining safe flight.

I certainly feel that low pilot pay has some cause in the lack of professionalism in the industry. Regional pilots (many of them) see the regional carriers as stepping stones to the major carriers. They want to spend as little time as they can with the regionals and hop up to the "real" airlines. If regional carriers showed that their outlook on air travel was the same as the majors or even beyond the regional airline industry would quickly change for the better. I certainly will be trying to have the mindset to learn something new everyday. Even if you fly the same route over and over, small things will change day to day and give new opportunities and openings to see and learn things from a different perspective. The aviation industry is changing and the people on the bottom of the [seniority] list will have to decide where they want it to go.

References

Fact and Fallacy of the "Pilot Shortage" (2016, March 3). In Patrick Smith's Ask The Pilot. Retrieved from http://www.askthepilot.com/pilot-shortage/

Leocha, C. (2010, March 12). Regional airlines with 2nd-class safety fly most domestic routes, more coming. In United Travelers. Retrieved from https://travelersunited.org/today/regional-airlines-with-2nd-class-safety-fly-most-domestic-routes-more-coming/

The Coming U.S. Pilot Shortage Is Real (2015, February 16). In Aviation Week. Retrieved from http://aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/coming-us-pilot-shortage-real

Commercial Space: Here to Stay or to Pass?

Space tourism has been a growing form or tourism since the 1960's. It began shortly after or even during the end of WWII during introduction of jet aircraft. This led to high altitude competition and speed records far beyond the speed of sound. All of these endeavors were new, reaching new altitudes and new speeds far surpassing any speed a person has gone before. In the advent of the Cold War the Soviet Union and the United States began the Space Race to get the first man into space and then beyond, to the Moon. We (everybody) had no knowledge of how the human body would react to the new environment of space, but we found a way. In the 1960's we had the Mercury missions and the Apollo Mission, being the most well known. Soon after with the knowledge from those missions and that of the X-15 the space shuttle was introduced. Ever since the retirement of the space shuttle we have been looking at new ways and new missions for future spaceflight. In the 1980's the commercial side of spaceflight was regulated with the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 in regards to regulation spacecraft launches, flights and reentry (FAA, In Office of Commercial Space). Modern commercial spaceflight is seeing the implementation of commercial spaceflight with paying passengers, where passengers can board a space-plane and take their turn at experiencing the world from above 327,000 ft.

The industry isn't greatly regulated other than the fact that the FAA has said that it has a say in everything being done in the industry such as possibly creating new or alternate requirements for a specific mission. It is a hard thing for the FAA to regulate being an entirely new industry. There will certainly be a learning curve  as the industry continues to grow.

I see commercial spaceflight growing very quickly in the next 35 years and even more beyond that. Passenger travel into space is here to stay. I believe it will be much more than something to check off of your bucket list, with the possibility of cooperation between governmental space programs and commercial programs to explore even more of space. It is even stated that use of the International Space Station is encouraged in Subchapter II, Section 50111 in Title 51 of the U.S. Code (Commercialization of Space Station).

The minimum requirements for becoming an astronaut may surprise you. You will need a bachelors degree in engineering, science or similar degrees, U.S. citizenship, 1,000 hrs of PIC jet time and to pass a pretty strict medical examination. These are only the minimums though as you most likely will need much more experience before you get accepted (Harris, How do I become).

Commercial spaceflight is going to grow very quickly by 2050 and even more so space exploration. I am very curious to where we will be able to send people in my lifetime and as to what will be discovered about the universe with it.

References

Commercialization of Space Station (n.d.). In Subtitle V—Programs Targeting Commercial Opportunities. Retrieved from http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml;jsessionid=9BF6A4E8B8A5FE534EE9ADD6EC06E1FE?req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title51-subtitle5&saved=L3ByZWxpbUB0aXRsZTUxL3N1YnRpdGxlNS9jaGFwdGVyNTA5%7CZ3JhbnVsZWlkOlVTQy1

FAA, . (n.d.). In Office of Commercial Space Transportation Regulations. Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/regulations/

Harris, W. (n.d.). How do I become an astronaut?. In How Stuff Works. Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://science.howstuffworks.com/question5341.htm

Airlines and Government: Together or Separate?

A quickly growing conflict between foreign airlines and domestic carriers has been in the aviation spotlight for some time now. The argument on whether some foreign carriers receiving government subsidies under the Open Skies policy is in fact allowed under Open Skies. It is no secret that foreign carriers are receiving government aid as Qatar Airways has confirmed that it has received free land worth $452 million from the government while Emirates has allowed the Investment Corporation of Dubai to acquire their fuel hedging contracts (Emirates Confirms, 2015). They have also reported that the government has subsidized the cost of the terminal building that are exclusive use for Emirates. The U.S. airlines state that they are happy to compete with other companies, but not when their countries' agreements are being broken (Emirates Confirms, 2015).

These government assistance projects are in no way fair to the U.S. carriers trying to compete in the same market. Especially when foreign carriers are moving into the U.S. with rates that no domestic carrier can compete at. Some examples of U.S. carriers receiving governmental subsidies would be Transcontinental and Western Air and United, flying airmail routes in the 1920's and 30's. Although they received government aid, which was needed at the time to start and grow aviation, was a long time ago and well before large international flights were available and before countries came together and decided that airlines would have a free market and not be aided by a government. That is largely different than foreign governments quickly spending billions of dollars and starting up three major international airlines with the largest and most modern aircraft as well as airports to go with them.

The Open Skies agreement was signed by the U.S. and Qatar in 2001 and the United Arab Emirates in 2002 (Laing, 2015). It only took a couple of years to see that those airlines were quickly receiving government aid. There are many groups that claim the U.S. is only accusing the foreign airlines of breaching the agreement out of fear of competing with them. The gulf airlines even stated that the U.S. airlines need to do a better job of competing (Not a fair, 2015).

On top of government assistance it is also possible that foreign airlines are receiving large discounts on aircraft that domestic carriers cannot receive. This is possible through the Export-Import Bank. Foreign airlines need a governmental guarantee when purchasing an aircraft because they are such large loans. These loans will then have a lower interest rate in turn saving them money which can be put forward to purchasing more aircraft or lowing ticket prices while domestic carriers are out of luck (Weisman, 2015). Boeing says that the Export-Import Bank is crucial to foreign sales because of the competition with Airbus. Without the Export-Import Bank many carriers may move on to Airbus and leave Boeing behind.

I don't believe that the international air carrier operations are fair across the board. With so much aid from their governments, foreign carriers are at such an advantage to the U.S.'s counterparts. That on top of the Export-Import savings for foreign carriers is completely unfair. It will be interesting to see where these conflicts take the aviation industry in the next few years and whether or not the U.S. airlines will stay or leave international routes if the foreign carriers and their governmental assistance remain intact. As well as the foreign carriers growth to domestic U.S. routes.

References

Emirates Confirms Billions in Government Subsidy for Airport Terminal (2015, August 27). In Pr Newswire. Retrieved from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/emirates-confirms-billions-in-government-subsidy-for-airport-terminal-300134208.html

Laing, K. (2015, March 12). Airlines: Foreign subsidies are destroying flight competition. In The Hill. Retrieved from http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/235543-airlines-foreign-subsidies-destroying-flight-competition

Not a fair flight: Why U.S. airlines are upset over Gulf States' subsidies (2015, April 21). In Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-openskies-airlines-united-delta-american-edit-0422-jm-20150421-story.html

Weisman, J., & Lipton, E. (2015, April 6). Boeing and Delta Spend Millions in Fight Over Export-Import Bank’s Existence. InThe New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/07/business/boeing-delta-air-lines-export-import-bank.html?_r=0