A significant number of trained maintenance personnel will be required by the airline industry in the coming years – and they will need to deal with increasingly digitalised aircraft, as Bernie Baldwin reports.
There is little doubt that the airline industry is currently emerging from the deepest and longest downturn in its history. Set it against the upheavals caused by 9/11, the first SARS outbreak, the 2008 financial crash and the Icelandic ash cloud and it beats every one of them for the havoc it caused to air transport.
However, though there have been aircraft order cancellations, many have simply been pushed back in the short-to-medium term. A large number of new aircraft will still be entering service over the next decade and the global fleet will grow once again – and those aircraft will need trained personnel to maintain them.
In its 2020-2039 Pilot and Technician Outlook, Boeing forecast that the demand for new technicians in the commercial aviation sector (excluding helicopters) would be 607,000 qualified people. North America is set to account for 123,000 of those and a number of new training programmes are cropping up to anticipate that requirement.
One of the most recent such programmes has seen Alaska Airlines join forces with aviation maintenance services company AAR. The two companies intend “to create a pipeline for qualified airline maintenance technicians (AMTs) for the Seattle-based airline”. According to the two, the “Flow Through Program is the first of its kind between an airline and an aviation services provider to focus on education and career training and recruit new workers from diverse backgrounds”.
The programme will see candidates complete their training and take up a role at an AAR maintenance facility. The companies’ joint statement adds, “If the applicant is in good standing and has completed three years with AAR as an aircraft technician, they qualify to apply to a career opening at Alaska and are guaranteed an interview. Alaska has 14 maintenance-staffed bases across its network.”
The demand for AMTs, of course, is global and companies such as Lithuania-based FL Technics want to sell a maintenance career to as many as possible as they strive to contribute to that worldwide demand for 607,000 mentioned in Boeing’s forecast.
“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic affecting most of the aviation industry and resulting in grounding of aircraft worldwide, the MRO business remains rather stable and operative, as fleets need to be maintained even if parked,” notes Giedrius Žutautas, marketing manager, FL Technics, as he assesses the MRO landscape. “Carriers planning recovery and re-opening their flights must have their aircraft airworthy and prepared for flight on demand, or to have them in active storage with continuous maintenance support.
“Such circumstances make the demand for new maintenance technicians and engineers stable or, in some cases, even growing. FL Technics leverages such a situation and offers job opportunities to young people, who are searching for a career in aviation, making the company uniquely positioned as a stable employer despite turbulent times for airlines and operators,” he adds.
“On the other hand, a career in aviation requires diligence and dedication, as the process of certifying and gaining experience as an engineer takes years. Unfortunately, young people tend to be more anxious and impatient, and uncertainty caused by pandemics emphasizes this trend, often leading to easier and faster career choices. This makes attracting young people more challenging,” Žutautas argues.
“FL Technics, however, focuses on potential new young employees who share the above mentioned qualities of diligence and dedication and are committed to their dreams, as the company actually ‘sells’ the concept of the prestigious status of aviation maintenance personnel. High levels of skills and talent, in line with global growth opportunities, make the MRO business inspiring and appealing to young people who have long term vision and strategy,” he declares.
“In addition to leveraging both the strong global position of the MRO business and the aspirational status of the profession, FL Technics offers a unique set of resources to support young employees in the industry, including a number of ways to share our global expertise as a one-stop-shop MRO service provider as well as various in-house and digital training solutions used to develop a career as fast and efficiently as possible,” Žutautas reports.
Another airline promoting aircraft maintenance as an exciting career is easyJet. Aidan Kearney, the carrier’s head of maintenance operations believes in catching talented youngsters early. “We have run successful engineering apprenticeships over the past number of years and supported STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activities to promote engineering in school age pupils. We have also visited schools, educational fairs and held open days at our facility in Luton [the airline’s home] to promote engineering with the number of apprentice applications rising year on year.”
Kearney and his team recognise that today’s candidates are more comfortable with IT and will adapt readily to the digitalisation which is happening on many aircraft. easyJet has thus reflected that in its training programmes.
“We take a blended approach to training with a combination of classroom, digitised data and hands-on learning for apprentices and new starters. The ability for apprentices to access training material on a tablet allows greater flexibility around the learning environment and offsite access to data,” Kearney confirms.
Additionally, digitalisation is incorporated in the training of maintenance personnel as they learn to deal with the advances implemented in the way aircraft maintenance is carried out. “CBT (computer based training) allows for fast access to training and visualisation of techniques. However, hands-on training remains an essential component of our activity as OTJ (on-the-job) builds on the skills and confidence of the engineer,” Kearney remarks.
According to Žutautas, FL Technics has been developing and investing in digital training delivery for years and offers comprehensive solutions for both in-house employees as well as clients and partners in the industry. “Two key types of training are currently offered: online training and virtual training,” he explains. “Online is video-based (pre-recorded) and virtual courses are led by an instructor. There are a number of variations depending on the type and level. All training programmes are fully EASA compliant, thoroughly supervised by FL Technics’ training managers and the quality management systems, plus they are now used in more than one hundred countries. The courses include assessments and tests which makes them very comprehensive and not superficial – they are courses into which students can really immerse themselves. We’re very proud that during the pandemic, the team improved the system and attained all of the approvals to make FL Technics’ training virtual. There are now virtual training programmes delivered over communication platforms which are, again, fully compliant with current EASA requirements.”
While it takes time to adapt to new forms of learning, Žutautas says the pandemic made this process faster, “forcing people who needed to maintain their experience or start a career in aviation to choose online and virtual training”.
Like Kearney though, he admits that in some cases the training cannot be fully virtual. “Some people still prefer physical sessions and courses. It is now generally accepted and agreed that training will largely go virtual and digital, and even if we see that the regulatory environment is following the trend, we need to be a couple of steps ahead,” Žutautas elaborates. And that is what he believes training with FL Technics achieves.
The challenge to meet the forecast AMT requirement is still tough, but with greater levels of digitalisation in aviation training, it looks set to be increasingly attractive to those for whom ‘digital’ is second nature.
Author: Bernie Baldwin
Published: 31st August 2021
Photo credits: Boeing Global Services and AAR/Alaska Airlines
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