The Aviation Industry Must Address the Plight of the Mechanic

The effects of the pandemic, coupled with inflation, and lost or slowed wage gains, sounds an alarm that should be heeded.

Michael Wildes

Thursday, April 21, 2022 at 07:58 AM ET

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A lack of qualified airframe and powerplant (A&P) technicians could halt the complete rebound of the aviation industry. [File photo: Adobe Stock]

Key Takeaways:

The aviation industry is rebounding in passenger traffic but faces a critical and growing shortage of qualified airframe and powerplant (A&P) technicians.
This talent gap is primarily driven by aviation technicians experiencing stagnated wage growth since the pandemic, which has been further eroded by high inflation.
Exacerbating the problem are the high costs of A&P education, especially at private institutions where most students enroll, contributing to significant student loan debt.
Consequently, a rising percentage of A&P graduates are choosing to work outside the aviation sector, indicating an urgent need for the industry to improve wages or offset costs to attract and retain talent.

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A report from the Aviation Technician Education Council (ATEC), a group that tracks the talent pipeline for aviation technicians, estimates that commercial air transport passenger traffic will rebound between 2023 and 2024. Recent TSA passenger data corroborates that, showing that as of April 19 this year, the 1.9 million passengers that passed through checkpoints across the U.S. represented 88 percent of people who traveled at the same time in 2019, when travel was at an all-time high.

Yet, amid the rebound in travel, unless the industry finds a way to address one particular problem, an insufficient talent pool of qualified airframe and powerplant (A&P) technicians could halt the complete rebound.