Applicants must be high school graduates. Those having several years of college or experience in dealing with the public are preferred. More and more attendants being hired are college graduates. Flight attendants for international airlines generally must speak an appropriate foreign language fluently.
Most large airlines require that newly hired flight attendants complete four to six weeks of intensive training in their own schools. The airlines that do not operate schools generally send new employees to the school of another airline. Transportation to the training centers and an allowance for board, room, and school supplies may be provided. Trainees learn emergency procedures such as evacuating an airplane, operating an oxygen system, and giving first aid. Attendants also are taught flight regulations and duties, and company operations and policies. Trainees receive instruction on personal grooming and weight control. Trainees for the international routes get additional instruction in passport and customs regulations and dealing with terrorism. Toward the end of their training, students go on practice flights. Attendants must receive twelve to fourteen hours of training in emergency procedures and passenger relations annually.
After completing the initial training, flight attendants are assigned to one of their airline's bases. New attendants are placed in reserve status and are called on either to staff extra flights or fill in for attendants who are sick or on vacation. Reserve attendants on duty must be available on short notice. Attendants usually remain on reserve for at least one year; at some cities, it may take five years or longer to advance from reserve status. Advancement takes longer today than in the past because experienced attendants are remaining in this career for more years than they used to. Attendants who no longer are on reserve bid for regular assignments. Because these assignments are based on seniority, usually only the most experienced attendants get their choice of base and flights.
Some attendants transfer to flight service instructor, customer service director, recruiting representative, or various other administrative positions.
Air Traffic Controllers
Air traffic controller trainees are selected through the competitive federal civil service system. Applicants must pass a written test that measures their ability to learn the controller's duties. Applicants with experience as a pilot, navigator, or military controller can improve their rating by scoring well on the occupational knowledge portion of the examination. Abstract reasoning and three-dimensional spatial visualization are among the aptitudes the exam measures. In addition, applicants generally must have three years of general work experience or four years of college, or a combination of both. Applicants also must survive a one-week screening at the FAAs Aeronautical Center Academy in Oklahoma City that includes aptitude tests using computer simulators, physical and psychological examinations. Successful applicants receive drug screening tests.
For airport tower and en-route center positions, applicants must be less than thirty-one years old. Those thirty-one years old and over are eligible for positions at flight-service stations.
Controllers must be articulate, because directions to pilots must be given quickly and clearly. Intelligence and a good memory also are important because controllers constantly receive information that they must immediately grasp, interpret, and remember. Decisiveness is also required because controllers often have to make quick decisions. The ability to concentrate is crucial because controllers must make these decisions in the midst of noise and other distractions.
Trainees learn their craft through a combination of formal and on-the-job training. They receive three to four months of intensive training at the FAA academy, where they learn the fundamentals of the airway system, FAA regulations, controller equipment, aircraft performance characteristics, as well as more specialized tasks. Based on aptitude and test scores, trainees are selected to work at either an en-route center or a tower. Regardless of the type of training, students must demonstrate their ability to make quick, correct decisions in simulated air traffic situations. After graduation, it takes several years of progressively more responsible work experience, interspersed with considerable classroom instruction and independent study, to become a fully qualified controller. This training includes instruction in the operation of the new, more automated air traffic control system including the automated Microwave Landing System that enables pilots to receive instructions over automated data links that is being installed in control sites across the country.
At airports, new controllers begin by supplying pilots with basic flight data and airport information. They then advance to ground controller, then local controller, departure controller, and finally, arrival controller. At an en-route traffic control center, new controllers first deliver printed flight plans to teams, gradually advancing to radar associate controller and then radar controller.
Failure to become certified in any position at a facility within a specified time may result in dismissal. Controllers who fail to complete either the academy or the on-the-job portion of the training are usually dismissed. Controllers must pass a physical examination each year and a job performance examination twice each year.
JOB OUTLOOK
Pilots
Pilots are expected to face considerable competition for jobs through 2006 because the number of applicants for new positions is expected to exceed the number of job openings. Com-petition will be especially keen early in the projection period due to a temporary increase in the pool of qualified pilots seeking jobs. Mergers and bankruptcies during the recent restructuring of the industry caused a large number of airline pilots to lose their jobs. Also, federal budget reductions resulted in many pilots leaving the armed forces. These and other qualified pilots seek jobs in this occupation because it offers very high earnings, glamour, prestige, and free or low cost travel benefits. As time passes, some pilots will fail to maintain their qualifications and the number of applicants competing for each opening should decline. Factors affecting demand, however, are not expected to ease that competition.
Relatively few jobs will be created from rising demand for pilots as employment is expected to increase about as fast as average for all occupations through 2006. The expected growth in airline passenger and cargo traffic will create a need for more airliners, pilots, and flight instructors. However, computerized flight management systems on new aircraft will eliminate the need for flight engineers on those planes, thus restricting the growth of pilot employment. In addition, the trend toward using larger planes in the airline industry will increase pilot productivity. Future business travel could also be adversely affected by advances in teleconferencing and facsimile mail and the elimination of many middle-management positions in corporate downsizing. Employment of business pilots is expected to grow more slowly than in the past as more businesses opt to fly with regional and smaller airlines serving their area rather than buy and operate their own aircraft. On the other hand, helicopter pilots are expected to grow more rapidly as the demand expands for the type of services helicopters can offer.
Job openings resulting from the need to replace pilots who retire or leave the occupation traditionally have been very low. Aircraft pilots understandably have an extremely strong attachment to their occupation because it requires a substantial investment in specialized training that is not transferable to other fields and it generally offers very high earnings. However, many of the pilots who were hired in the late 1960s during the last major industry boom are approaching the age for mandatory retirement, so during the projected period, retirements of pilots are expected to increase and generate several thousand job openings each year.
Pilots who have logged the greatest number of flying hours in the more sophisticated equipment generally have the best prospects. This is the reason military pilots usually have an advantage over other applicants. Job seekers with the most FAA licenses will also have a competitive advantage. Opportunities for pilots in the regional commuter airlines and inter-national service are expected to be more favorable as these segments are expected to grow faster than other segments of the industry.
Employment of pilots is sensitive to cyclical swings in the economy. During recessions, when a decline in the demand for air travel forces airlines to curtail the number of flights, airlines may temporarily furlough some pilots. Commercial and corporate flying, flight instruction, and testing of new aircraft also decline during recessions, adversely affecting pilots employed in those areas.
