Air Corps strength nosedives as pilot initiative fails to take flight
A Government initiative aimed at luring former pilots back into the Air Corps has nosedived and manpower has fallen in the service, across the ranks.
The Air Corps is 30% understrength for pilots with no new blood likely to come on board this year, apart from two former officers who will soon be recommissioned.
It is expected a further 10 pilots will quit the Air Corps this year, leaving an even bigger deficit. The recommended pilot crew strength is 107.
The service also continues to have problems in recruiting air traffic controllers and is currently at 50% of its strength in that department.
Meanwhile, there is also a severe shortage of aircraft mechanics.
Experienced pilots continue to be headhunted by major airlines which are offering recruits up to double the wages in the Air Corps, in particular, and also better working conditions.
As more pilots leave the Air Corps headquarters at Baldonnel for the mainstream aviation industry there is a multiplier effect, as their peers are encouraged to follow, attracted by comparatively more attractive employment terms and conditions.
The minister with responsibility for defence, Paul Kehoe, is seeking to recommission pilots in an effort to fill vacancies with much-needed experienced personnel. However, it has not worked to date.
According to RACO, the representative body for officers in the Defence Forces, the recommissioning of former pilots is having a negative effect on morale.
RACO general secretary Commandant Conor King said his association raised the many concerns of Air Corps pilots with the Department of Defence when the recommissioning initiative was originally proposed, but the concerns were not addressed and the consultation process was abruptly ended by the department.
“It has caused considerable concern among those Air Corps officers who have displayed loyalty and commitment to the Defence Forces and who now face the prospect of an initiative whose specifics are, at best, vague having a detrimental effect on their career advancement prospects in what is already a narrow stream,” Comdt King said.
“While the intent of the minister’s recommissioning initiative is readily understood by RACO to be an effort to improve the chronic manning level shortages in Defence Forces units, the manner of its implementation will have, in the opinion of all Air Corps Officers, quite the opposite effect.”
