In our skies and on our roads, Canada's facing its next transportation crisis - a shortage of experienced pilots and professional truck drivers.

The labour crisis in the trucking industry has been building for the better part of the last decade, but the skills shortage in aviation is just beginning.

"It's having a large impact on a global scale, because it's resulted in shifting pilots between countries," says Marc-David Seidel, an aviation expert and associate professor at the University of British Columbia.

"You have emerging markets in Asia - China and India are the ones we're hearing a lot about - and the Middle East all actively recruiting and taking Canadian pilots."

Photo courtesy of Pro IFR
Pro IFR president John Montgomery is losing instructors each year.

That's what happened to Capt. Brian Boucher, a veteran pilot who logged 29 years with Air Canada before disembarking for another carrier. Boucher is now flying for India's Kingfisher Airlines and commutes to its New York City base for his shifts.

"All these airlines overseas now are starting to create bases here in North America and there's no doubt more (Canadian) pilots will start flying for them," Boucher says. "The pay's better and the quality of life is better."

Factor in large-scale retirements as Baby Boomer pilots reach age 60, the mandatory retirement age at most carriers, and insiders agree there's turbulence ahead for the industry.

"I don't know if it's the perfect storm," says Capt. Andy Wilson, president of the Air Canada Pilots Association (ACPA). "But I would say at some point, certainly during the last round of bankruptcy protection in North America, pilots were seen as a cost item. And as the shortage builds, airlines will have to fight to retain pilots, because you need pilots to fly planes."

The world's largest airline, American Airlines, didn't have enough pilots to fly its planes in February. More than 50 flights were grounded when 143 pilots retired and the airline avoided further cancellations by putting 250 managers, who were qualified pilots, into cockpits.

Here in Canada, a hiring boom is underway as carriers try to navigate around a similar fate. Air Canada has hired nearly 700 pilots since July 2005, and with more than 100 pilots retiring every year, training courses for new hires are being offered at least every month.

Air Canada regional carrier Jazz plans to hire 60 to 90 more pilots between now and the end of the year as part of an "aggressive recruitment" plan.

"We currently have one or two classes of pilot training scheduled each month for 2008," says Air Canada Jazz spokeswoman Debra Williams. "The demand for commercial airline pilots in Canada is high."

That demand is growing from the bottom up as major carriers, including Air Canada and WestJet, hire experienced pilots from regional carriers who, in turn, take pilots from smaller carriers, training companies and even flying clubs.

At Vancouver-based Pro IFR, one of Canada's largest professional flight centres, the crunch has already begun. After losing seven flight instructors last year, the company is now actively recruiting.

"We always planned to lose a couple instructors every year (to the airlines) and now it looks like we're going to lose about six or seven instructors each year," says John Montgomery, Pro IFR's founder and president.

The skills shortage is such a universal problem that some carriers and smaller outfits have even reduced their minimum requirements to get pilots at the controls.

"They're going after people right out of flight school now," says associate professor Seidel. "And that means they really have to be sure about safety checks and training once they're hired."

At American Eagle, applications are being accepted from pilots with 500 flight hours, which typically translates into less than a year's experience. Of those hours, 100 need to be on a multi-engine airplane.

Western Canadian carrier Central Mountain Air, which flies between B.C. and Alberta, has gone a step further. It's offering to hire "low-time pilots" to ground positions and then transition them into the cockpit.

All of this is raising questions about safety - especially for some foreign carriers that have less-stringent safety requirements. Experts point to last year's Garuda Indonesia Airlines crash, which killed 21 people when the plane overshot the runway and burst into flames. The official inquiry found pilot error was to blame.

"Garuda was having difficulty hiring at the time and this incident was attributed to pilot inexperience," Seidel says. "It's obviously a very serious example and something that severe probably wouldn't happen here in Canada. But it's at the point that people might want to think twice about flying a discount carrier overseas."

Before working for Kingfisher, Capt. Boucher trained some overseas pilots in an Airbus 320 fight simulator. After 300 hours, they got their rating and were cleared to fly as co-pilots.

"If the pilot becomes incapacitated, we taught them to use the autopilot to land because they don't trust them to land the plane - it's crazy, but it's true," says Boucher.

While some carriers may be aggressively pursuing newly trained pilots to meet growing demand, others offer an attractive incentive to Canadian pilots - the ability to keep flying past age 60.

"I know the guys that are able to retire now with Air Canada are looking at these carriers (that) will allow you to work to 65," says Boucher.

Experts say an obvious solution to the pilot shortage would be for Canadian carriers to increase the mandatory retirement age which, in the case of Air Canada, was set back in 1957 when life expectancies were shorter.

"Sixty is quite young in a modern society and there are very few industries with a cut-off at that age," Seidel says. "Pilots in their 60s are probably the most experienced to handle an emergency situation because time on the job is where you gain experience. I'd prefer to see no arbitrary retirement age and just regular skill testing, so if they fail to pass, they don't fly."

In Canada, commercial pilots over age 40 are already subjected to medicals every six months and the proposed changes would require one pilot in every cockpit to be under 60. Even so, it's a move airlines - and even pilots - have resisted.

"Extending the retirement age will only be a stop-gap," says ACPA's Wilson. "To really fix (the shortage) you have to increase wages. There's no retirement age for doctors and yet there are shortages - we have to make it more attractive."

Entry-level airline pilots are among the poorest-paid professionals around. At some regional carriers, the starting wage is just over $20,000. Even at Air Canada, the nation's largest airline, pilots are on frozen pay for the first two years and make $38,000 to start.

"We're still making wages we made in 1988 and doctors, lawyers and accountants aren't making the same wages they made then - no wonder there aren't more pilots," Wilson says. "If the airlines are concerned about the shortage, they should make the compensation more attractive."

That's what the trucking industry has started to do - especially in booming and labour-strapped Alberta and B.C.

"Our highest-paid driver in Alberta made $100,000 last year and the average guy is probably in the $60,000-to- $70,000 range," says Trevor Fridfinnson, vice-president of western operations for Bison Transport in Calgary.

One of Canada's largest fleets, Bison employs more than 1,000 drivers and operates all over North America. It has been coping with a chronic, industry-wide driver shortage for at least 10 years. While a strong dollar and high fuel costs have idled the trucking industry in other parts of the country, that's not the case in Western Canada.

"Between B.C. and Alberta, there's business and economic strength that maybe isn't in Eastern and Central Canada right now," says Fridfinnson. "The demand for people is high and, even with good pay, we're still scratching to get enough people that are qualified for the job."

Bison is looking to hire 300 drivers in B.C. and Alberta this year and they're not alone. According to the Canadian Trucking Human Resources Council, 12 per cent of trucking jobs in Canada are vacant and 37,000 new drivers are needed every year just to keep up with demand.

Manitoba Trucking Association general manager Bob Dolyniuk says: "We have an aging workforce and the average age of a professional driver is higher than the average workforce age. It's not so much about having the capital assets to grow, but having the human-resource assets to grow."

In Manitoba it's projected that 2,000 new drivers are needed each year and Dolyniuk says they're lucky if they get half that.

As a result, many trucking companies are now recruiting overseas.

"We've brought over 100 drivers from various parts of Europe for the last three years because we just don't have enough people here," says Fridfinnson. "They're paid the same wage and there's obviously fees and expense associated with getting them over, so it's not a small proposition. But if it's a qualified driver who's got experience, it makes sense to do it."

With only 35 per cent of job applicants in Canada identifying themselves as "qualified" drivers, some less scrupulous trucking outfits aren't so picky. "That's absolutely true and with Alberta the tightest labour market, that's where you'll see shortcuts being taken," Fridfinnson says.

Down the road, it's predicted the situation will only get worse - just like the pilot shortage. "They're all fishing from the same pool," says Wilson. "The crunch has started and it's only a matter of time before it filters up to the main lines in the next few years."

(Tess van Straaten can be reached at tess@businessedge.ca)