Where have all the good times gone?
Have the days having a successful aircraft maintenance career in the airlines come and gone? Will airline maintenance jobs ever recover from the pummeling they have received over the last several years, or are the good times gone forever?
Think about it — not too long ago getting a job with the airlines meant career success for an aircraft mechanic. Airline jobs were high-paying and there was a reasonable amount of job security. Heck, there was even the opportunity for career advancement. I remember when I first started working as a mechanic I would read all the job postings wondering how I could get my foot in the door for an interview with an airline. Even as recently as five years ago, aircraft mechanics were doing fairly well. Northwest mechanics took home an industry-leading wage package, and United mechanics were able to negotiate a fairly good contract after years of stalemates.
Then came 9/11. And SARS. And escalating fuel prices. And the excuses go on and on.
Now, aircraft maintenance jobs have been decimated. Northwest mechanics went on strike last year, and are technically still on strike. United’s Indianapolis Maintenance Center was shut down. Hundreds, no, thousands of jobs have been lost as airlines outsource more and more of their work. Everywhere you turn, you read news about bankruptcies, wage concessions, and lost jobs.
I believe the most dangerous part of this trend to outsource more and more work is the brain drain that is occurring. Think about it. There has always been a line of progression in an A&P’s career. He or she would usually start out working scheduled maintenance. Then came unscheduled maintenance and line maintenance. Mechanics learned not only from the maintenance manuals, but from important lessons on the job. Those little quirks about each aircraft that the maintenance manuals wouldn’t tell you about. That little trick that helped reduce troubleshooting time, etc. The grey hairs would pass on their knowledge to the green horns. But now, that learning opportunity has all but vanished.
Where does this bean-counting cost-cutting mentality lead to? Is there a point where cost-cutting leads to safety issues? If that is true, will airlines realize it in time, or will it take a major accident and customer backlash to open their eyes?
What do you think about the whole situation? Where do we go from here?
Thanks for reading, and as always I appreciate your feedback.
Joe Escobar
Where have all the good times gone (2006-04-06 21:57:44.0)
Exactly!…Where DO we go from here? That’s the $64,000 question. I have been in this industry for 30 years now and the difference from when I started out, and now…is like night and day.
The whole downward spiral began with airline deregulation, then 911 and high fuel prices.
Early in my career, I hoped that my son would follow in my footsteps and become an aircraft mechanic, but as time went on and airlines started tightening their belts, I felt more and more uneasy in leading him in that direction.
I feel that the A & P schools are trying to fill their classrooms, and that when a student finally does get his/her ticket, he or she is confronted with a harsh dose of reality in finding that there aren’t that many high-paying jobs available in this industry.
I consider myself extremely fortunate to be where I am at today because there are hundreds of mechanics out there not sure if the company they work for, will be in operation when they report to work each day.
It’s sad to admit, but I think things will get tougher before they get any better, in the airline industry, and job competition will be tough.
Keith H.
Indianapolis,In.
good times
What is happening is Union busting — dumping obligations such as medical and pensions. Maintenance is not the only orginization to be dumped. Reservations are in other countries, the kitchens and sky caps have been gone for some time. Tilton at UAL has been talking of foreign ownership for some time now of domestic airlines, not the 49% limit, but controlling interest. Are the pilots the next to go? How about the transportation dept. saying that foreign ownership was ok at the same time the port controversy was at the top of the news. Lets see now, can a foreign owned domestic carrier have to have american pilots fly their planes? Or how about that foreign owner supplying aircraft in time of war? Like the big boys say the planes are not falling out of the sky, But we know they are out of service more often, we know at UAL a 727 HMV would take 22 days, an OSV took as I recall some whare over 60 to do the same job, I do know that X ual management are now running some of those companies, kind of makes you wonder. When I hired on at UAL they had so much work from other carriers that it not only paid for all of UAL maintenance but added to the bottom line for the company. I see what could have been and it brakes my heart to see everything being flushed for the financial gain of a few, You are 100% right it WAS a great job while it lasted, I could not or would not recommend it to anyone today. The price that I and my family paid will be upside down forever.
Frank Bonthron
Antioch Ca.
Airline mechanics
I worked in the airlines for 37 years and saw it go from the top to the bottom. Deregulation was the beginning and outsourcing will be the end. The outsourced work that I saw both as a line mechanic and later as a crew chief was never as good as work I saw produced inhouse. The puplic is getting the short end [substandard maintenance] and wil not know it until lives are lost. I was proud to be an airline mechanic and hate to see a industery I loved go the way I see it going today. The airlines used to be all about service now it is just about the bottom line.
Charles J Wirt
Liberty , Mo
The unions have no guts
Look back at history the unions and union memebers would go to the wall fo fight the corporate barons. Not any more. I guess the fight was not worth it. I guess the system has worked it’s magic on the minds of the workers. Putting your life on the line for yourself, your family and your fellow workers is no longer an option.
Look at the newsreels from the 1920s and 30s and you will see what real unions in action.
D.M.
Bellingham, WA
Where have all the good times gone?
I feel I have to respond to your editorial and correspondents with an opinion from the other side of the Atlantic. My career in aircraft maintenance began in 1960 with the Royal Air Force and later moved into commercial aviation. I have seen many changes, unfortunately, not for the better in most instances.
The ‘good times’ have gone into the financiers’ pockets. When the banks took control of the airlines that was the end of the fun era. Gone were the days of adventure and trepidation, the jet age was with us and with it everything had to be clinical and squeaky clean. Reliability and long intervals between maintenance were to be the norm. Cosequently, the need for a highly trained maintenance staff was reduced. Airlines looked for savings and as always the first item to suffer - training, shortly followed by having lesser and fewer trained people, who could maintain the ’simpler’ aircraft. Whilst fleets have increased, staff levels have remained at the ‘new’ low level, working hours have increased in line with fleet size and the extra income has gone to provide ‘productivity’ bonuses to the top executives, even when the company has made the famous negative profit. I have always believed these bonus payments should be spread through the workforce which made the profit. Many of the incresaed productivity and savings ideas have come from the shop floor, but rarely is there even a word of thanks let alone any visible reward. Bitter - no, disappointed - very much so. I could never recommend aircraft maintenance as a career to any young person asking for advice on their future. It is just too uncertain. If they are so determined, then my advice is get trained (easier said than done), get qualifications and then try and get into a maintenance organisation, forget the airlines.
The travelling public wants the lowest price seats possible, do they care about the standard of maintenance as long as the ticket is cheap? Aeroplanes have always crashed, so what difference is it going to make if the maintenance is low quality? I know a lot of people who do not believe aircraft are maintained, they think they are too big, too complicated for humans to service, repair them. I am often looked at in disbelief when I tell my profession.
The other side of the coin is that we have been our own worst enemies. The challenge has always been answered that the job can be done, nothing is too great. When we should have been demanding better equipment, facilities, etc., the old excuse ‘no money available’ has been accepted and the aircraft has been pushed out on time and to standard.
Although I have worked for a number of U.S. companies, it appears more of a recent trend for them to outsource work. In Europe, I have long been familiar with this method of maintenance, or bringing in contract labour to accomplish both planned and line maintenance. Mostly only licensed engineers on type are engaged. Standards of workmanship have varied from extremely good to the opposite end of the scale. Mechanics who didn’t measure up were instantly dismissed. At the end of the check the contractors would pack up their tools and move on to the next job. Where the aircraft went to an outside source, a team from the airline went with it to oversee work. These methods have meant that airlines kept their manpower to a minimum. This way many experienced and qualified people have remained in employment and avoided direct airline employment/layoff. Another point in favour of this system, for the individual, the word very quickly goes around who is a good and a poor employer, consequently, the best personnel work with the good company as each has the choice and the airline can choose where to send its work. How this system would work in the U.S., I don’t know, but when so much work is being moved to the Far East from both sides of the Atlantic, I think we, the maintenance personnel, need to get some ideas together. One of your correspondents has noted an ex-director from one of his employers left and started a maintenance company, now taking in his ex-airlines work. Perhaps, a look where the work is going and then make a choice for a move could be an answer.
I would just say that ‘company loyalty’ like the ‘good times’ is a thing of the past.
James A
James Adair
Ingber. The Netherlands
Why not background checks?
It scares me to death to fly on a plane after 9/11 let alone to do it with scab mechanics who don’t need their backgrounds checked. That seems like a no brainer to me. These bean counters are idiots. There are other ways to save the airlines. I’m so tired of management staff thinking that they know it ALL. After 9/11 I wouldn’t ever step on a plane where it had been worked on by someone without the experience nor the background check not to mention an airline that trusted these men and women in the past and just scraped them off like gum on the bottom of their shoes. I’m appalled. Good luck to all you strikers, you have all of my support and prayers for your futures, hang in there!! I believe with all my being in your fight!!
Joy R
Minneapolis, MN
Joe, unfortunately history is replete with example after example of the need for the ultimate of human sacrifice in order to spawn any meaningful change. So it is sad to say that yes, there will have to be one or more catastrophic events directly attributable to faulty maintenance before lawmakers will lift themselves off their well-padded laurels and enact the necessary regulatory change in order to restore what once was the safest mode of transportation in the world.
Bill R.
Farmington, MN
its the way of the world and we are ignoring it
The thing that irks me the most is us! Much of what I’ve seen in 18 years as an A&P and avionics is how we couldn’t get along with ourselves and our bosses.
The other thing is our ignorance of the competition. I now work at a large cargo outfit, and we outsource our work. I have been to Singapore and China (mainland and HKG) and as much as I tried to see the worst, I only found high quality, highly productive workers. We as Americans refused to believe that those foreigners were as good as us. THEY ARE! And getting better every day. The kicker is that they make literally $1000/month and LESS! How can we compete with that? Even at KLM where they do some of our 747s, the Dutch earn dramatically less than us.
The other thing was how I personally saw our workers (unions included) say that the quality of the work here was degraded because, you know, affirmative action made us hire “those” people. We turned on each other. Then we vote Republican in national elections, then call on the few powerless remaining Democrats to help us when the corporations did what they do for their shareholders. What did you think was gonna happen?
Next is domestic competition. IF NWA is paying 70 k and higher for a mechanic, but Airtran pays 38k to start up to 50k, we refused to see that it was the competition that was undermining us as well.
Another was attitude. I recall many times hearing the guys in the shop comparing themselves to doctors. They felt that they should be paid like pilots do. We are not pilots and are not doctors. There’s no way the market can support paying an employee group those kind of salaries for a job that you could get by going to school for 12-18 months or work in a hangar for OJT cards and a signoff. WE ARE MECHANICS. Even I felt a little overpaid when I made 68K one year for what I did.
Lastly, technology. You think its bad now? Technology has created a multitude of surveillance systems and diagnostics that made our job dramatically simpler. Then the efficiencies of computers in the OFFICES that made management more efficient. But just wait until the 787. I have details from Boeing on my desk showing that the fuselage including stringers are made of composites. Meaning no corrosion, and since epoxy/carbon fiber flexes, less cracking. Say goodbye to structures jobs! Right now we have ADS-B technology along with ACARS that can send commands TO the airplane. I do that right now via ACARS. You dont think that as we sent rockets into space for decades we couldnt fly airplanes remotely? As soon as you show the public $100.00 r/t tickets on pilotless airplanes you’ll see the end of pilot jobs too.
There is more than enough blame to go around. I think we as MX people priced ourselves out of the market and then wouldnt produce when we were paid in the face of worldwide competition.
kevin beckett
ny new york
Been there,….-Done That!
Dear Joe,
I’m one of those “Experienced Line Mechanics” of which you speak. I’ve been hassled by Maintenance Supervisors whose only concern has been “gettin’ the ship down to the gate to make departure!”…I’ve also had the satisfaction of “Saving Lives” by detecting fuel leaks on my departure walk-a-rounds….which has not only been criticized by Maintenance Supervisors, but the very Captains who were slated for the trip which I had to reluctantly “shoot-down” for the sake of safety…I’ve even been verbally abused by the flying public, who’s personal safety has been entrusted to me by my FAA certification.
A most recent example of “where the good times have gone?” would be United Airlines dismissal of one of their chief executives Doug Hacker who’s serverence package woud be the equilvelant of hiring approx. 24+1/2 technicians (1 yr.) who could use their expertise and skill towards maintaining United Airlines Fleet of Aircraft. But that is no longer important. What is important would be CEO’s Glenn Tilton’s Pension which is held in secular trust while mine, and thousands of my peers have be STOLEN — traded for an orchestrated conspiricy contrived by the Goverment to encourage my fellow Americans to surrender their pensions in order to “Save” their life-long employer who (in my opinion) never had any intention of fulfilling their pension commitments to the employees who are responsible of sustaining the enterprise to begin with!-I’m not even going to address the ESOP issue in this rant!-
…In closing, I wish that there will be future Junior mechanics following in my footsteps, but the more I think about it, if they are as educated as the prerequisite requirement for the job, then hopefully their better judgement will prevail-and they will seek another carrer path.
Eric Schell
ORD
ericschell@ameritech.net
Not what it used to be
Hello
I want to comment on a couple of posts. I agree with both Keith H of Indianapolis,In and Frank Bonthron of Antioch Ca.
I am a young (so to speak A&P) I only have about 8 yr of experince. I have been laid off many times and it always seems my pay is going backwards. Thank God some jobs were higher. My last job I was screwed out of it. It was a vendor doing maintenance on Northwest planes. They are a VERY cheap company. I decided that I am going to get out of aviation. I dont want to deal with working nights etc..
I looked back on my experance and I relized that Aviaton has not be very kind to me and it has not been very rewarding to me. I am too young to enjoy the good time of the more seasoned Mechanics. I have worked with a few old timers from Braniff and always enjoy listening to their storys of how well they were treated. I am really jealous cause I know I wont ever experince that in my lifetime.
I would not ever recommend aviation maintenance to anyone.
I personaly think that The GOOD TIMES are GONE for good. It is just about some high manager getting a lot of money and [stepping] on the ones who do the work.
Christopher b
Dulles VA