Business aviation makes changes to help address workforce challenges.
Molly McMillin
AS THE BUSINESS AVIATION INDUSTRY GRAPPLES WITH WORKFORCE shortages, manufacturers are taking a variety of steps to attract and retain employees—including increasing pay, benefits and a number of perks.
They also are working with a variety of trade schools and colleges, as well as increasing the number of internships.
On July 26, for example, Piper Aircraft opened a health care center at its Vero Beach, Florida, headquarters offering no-cost preventative care, remedial care, chronic condition management, health coaching and lab services to employees and their families.
Textron Aviation also has opened an on-site employee wellness clinic and a pharmacy at its Wichita headquarters, as well as on-site cafes and a learning center designed for skill development and training. This summer it took on 350 college and 150 high school interns who worked with mentors and were assigned to a cross-section of business functions across the company.
“This will help us address that and differentiate us in the marketplace,” Michele Gifford, Textron Aviation human resources director, said recently. Textron plans to hire 2,000 employees in 2023 to allow for growth and attrition, with job openings across manufacturing and maintenance positions.
THE NUMBERSBoeing’s latest forecast predicts global demand for 649,000 pilots over the next 20 years—and that does not count pilots required by the business aviation industry. Boeing also forecasts demand for 690,000 maintenance technicians and 938,000 cabin crewmembers. Over the next 10 years, more than 30% of U.S. aviation technicians and more than 25% of commercial pilots in the commercial aviation workforce will be at or near retirement, it predicts.
Staffing challenges have been most acute over the past 24-36 months, says Todd Simmons, Cirrus Aircraft president of customer experience. Cirrus employs more than 2,500 people, with the majority of its workforce located in Duluth, Minnesota, where Cirrus aircraft are manufactured.
“We know there have been compensation changes [in the industry,] and Cirrus has made those changes,” Simmons says, in everything from direct labor to its pilots. It has enhanced employee benefits, such as health care and 401(K) plans.
Cirrus has also been creative in adding a variety of options for pilots and experiences they can have within the company.
“That’s not to say there are not pilots that are trying to build toward an airline career,” Simmons says. “There are, and there will always be.” But now, the company offers a variety of pathways for pilots. For example, pilots have become product specialists, production flight-test and experimental flight-test pilots and leaders in sales and marketing. In addition, pilots train and teach customers using Cirrus aircraft.
Honda Aircraft held an internal job fair at its exhibit at EAA AirVenture in July. Credit: Molly McMillin/Aviation Week
The company has been investing in training and is spending more time in the recruitment process.
“Our investment has been intensified on the front end,” Simmons says, with more dedicated resources for human resources and training. It is spending more time in the recruitment process to find staff with the skills to do the job.
“I think these are the hallmarks of what Cirrus has done,” he says. “We are beginning to see more stability in the employee population, especially in the past six months, because of that.”
TECHNOLOGY ATTRACTIONHonda Aircraft, based in Greensboro, North Carolina, held a job fair during EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in July, where it was well-received, officials say. Recruiters there met with students and professionals.
The company has immediate openings for more than 100 new hires, including engineers, pilots, mechanics, supply chain professionals and others. With Honda Aircraft’s new HondaJet 2600 model, an 11-seat longer-range version of its current HondaJet HA-420, the company will eventually need to add 300 employees to its staff.
Honda Aircraft is studying the market, the supply of and demand for workers and whether it needs to make changes in its salary structure.
“We are very much carefully monitoring that,” says Hideto Yamasaki, Honda Aircraft president and CEO.
At the same time, the new HondaJet 2600 is generating excitement for applicants and its workforce, Yamasaki says.
Honda Aircraft is recruiting from “everywhere,” both inside and outside the U.S., “wherever there is an industry,” he says.
Meanwhile, Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co., Honda Aircraft’s parent company, has released plans to develop a new electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft, as part of a series of next-generation technology under research and development by the company.
“We don’t have a clear connection, but we have started to do some kind of collaborations,” Yamasaki says. “They are coming over to Greensboro [the company's U.S. headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina] to have some research for their new development.”
Engineers joining Honda Aircraft will be able to work on exciting projects such as these, he says.
A SHORTAGE BENEFITLike others in the industry, Piper Aircraft is competing for top- quality employees. That’s one reason the manufacturer decided to add a family health center to its campus in a partnership with Marathon Health.
While a workforce shortage, along with supply chain issues, are a challenge, they also present advantages, says Ron Gunnarson, Piper Aircraft vice president of sales, marketing and customer support.
“Those constraints can be both a curse and a blessing,” Gunnarson says. “We are an industry that follows the market like no other industry with the ups and the downs.”
When times are good, the industry has a tendency to overproduce aircraft.
“You are going full tilt, full throttle all the time, and you get yourself out onto a ledge,” Gunnarson says. “No one can overbuild like general aviation OEMS.”
Overbuilding presents difficulties in times of a downturn.
Today’s supply chain and labor shortages difficulties are “keeping us in the real world,” he says, with a healthy order backlog of aircraft.
“It’s a very good and special place to be,” Gunnarson says.
—Molly McMillin, a 25-year aviation journalist, is managing editor of business aviation for the Aviation Week Network and editor-in-chief of The Weekly of Business Aviation, an Aviation Week market intelligence report.
