In response to critical workforce shortages which have not been mitigated by Covid-19, Future Aviation/Aerospace Workforce News has been launched to make sense of industry regulatory, corporate, training, recruitment and retention challenges.
“Before the pandemic businesses were leaving billions on the table for lack of workforce,” said Editor in Chief Kathryn Creedy, who launched the new site. “Now businesses are saying we must use this time to prepare for the future. While industry has been proposing regulatory and training changes, others have been working to promote aviation careers. Corporations are adding apprenticeships and there is a strong move toward career and technical education. These initiatives have largely gone uncovered leaving many to reinvent wheels that have been successful for others. Future Aviation/Aerospace Workforce News will change that.”
The twice monthly subscription news site will cover such issues as:
- What government, industry, unions and associations are doing to promote aviation/aerospace careers
- How Advanced Air Mobility & drones wil impact workforce challenges
- Bringing aviation education & training into the 21st Century
- Proposals by safety experts on training reform
- How companies are getting into the inner city to increase diversity
- What does and doesn’t work in the 100s of programs already launched
- Transitioning military talent to civilian jobs
- What industry needs to do to retain workers leaving because of Covid burnout
- Funding strategies
- Barriers to entry
- Legislative changes needed
- Public perception vs reality
- Growing role of Career & Technical Education
- Apprenticeships & Internships
- Airlines creating partnerships with universities & flight schools
- National Center for the Advancement of Aviation
- Shortages in other disciplines such as ATC, advanced design, flight dispatch and other
- Work rule changes for the modern workforce
The current workforce glut is short-term and numerous forecasts show shortages will be worse in the next few years because they have always been driven by retirement. Covid has accelerated those retirements with the permanent loss of thousands of highly skilled workers.
Aviation and aerospace are competing with Silicon Valley and new employers working in advanced materials and manufacturing. Industry knows it can give Silicon Valley a run for its money with such innovations as unmanned systems, advanced air mobility, aviation innovation incubators, commercial space, environment issues, changing powerplant technology and connected aircraft. While the flight deck and the maintenance bay get most of the attention in terms of workforce shortages, other disciplines including ATC, dispatch, data analysis, aircraft and interior design, engineering, project management, IT and cybersecurity are all face challenges as well.
With 40 years’ experience in the aviation industry, Kathryn Creedy will cover all these workforce development issues. With an eye toward identifying voids in aviation coverage, Creedy began her aviation career creating Commuter/Regional Airline News to cover the intense activity of the post-deregulation regional airline industry. C/R News became the bible of the regional airline industry leading to the development of C/R News International. Creedy has also developed and edited several other aviation publications.
She has reported aviation workforce issues since 2013 and continues to write extensively on the subject including work rule issues, aviation maintenance technicians and pilots. Her byline has appeared in CNN Travel, The Points Guy, BBC Capital, Los Angeles Times, Forbes Online, The Washington Post, Flyer Talk, Business Traveler, Business Travel Executive, Afar, Flightglobal, Centre for Aviation, Aviation Week & Space Technology, Low Fare & Regional Airlines, Inflight, Business Airports International, Airports, Centerlines, Regional Gateway and Runway Girl Network. In 2018, she was cited for the Sapphire Pegasus Business Aviation Award for her work as a business aviation journalist. Creedy is also the author of Time Flies – The History of SkyWest Airlines.
Future Aviation/Aerospace Workforce News 
Hi KATHRYN, Thanks for coming up with this Aviation Workforce News Site. I believe not just the new graduates but also the existing workforce in aviation is looking to have new opportunities and challenges within the aviation industry but the direction is not very clear. Lot of Support Function in Aviation, Quality Assurance, Planning, Projects, Marketing become stagnant after a while and people who are in search for challenges need to find new directions. May be if you can include some Aviation mentors who can guide fresh and experienced workforce on moving ahead will greatly help.
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Shipra, this is great. There are a lot of mentors out there within various specialty groups such a Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, Latin Pilots Association etc…
Are you saying that these disciplines lack workforce and people are leaving? If so is it because of the lack of mentors and challenges?
You bring up a great point for HR managers who need to develop an in-house capability to match mentors with fresh & experienes workforce with growing in their careers. From your question, I assuming that doesn’t exist right now. This is an important topic since it costs less to retain than to recruit.
Again, many thanks for your thoughts. Cheers — Kathryn
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