The Aviation Industry Will Rise Again: Captain Chris Rigby

Captain Chris Rigby: “So what do we do now?”

Captain Chris Rigby joined us last week for our online aviation job fair and spoke to visitors about the present industry and how he is trying to help. Here’s a roundup below:

All of us who have been in commercial aviation over the last 50 years have seen all the ups and downs it throws at us – but nothing quite like this.

The effects of the Covid-19 shutdown will take some time to work through and will affect all strata of the flight crew community from the recently qualified to those approaching retirement. So if you are one of those, what do you do now?

Our experience at Flight Simulators Midlands is that we all pull together to help those worst affected, particularly the unemployed and laid off. We have seen company crashes from BMI Baby, Monarch, Thomas Cook, and now, Flybe. Their pilots have come to us for assessment preparation training for their upcoming interview but that isn’t happening right now – at least not in the short term. The airlines they were hoping to join are already under pressure to keep their existing teams and it’s going to be some while before that works through.

How long will this last? Nobody knows, of course, but even if we find a vaccine in the next few weeks, it will probably take 12 months for it to flush through the system and see airlines looking to get back onto their normal track. Undoubtedly, the crew will be under pressure to reduce wage costs as things start to come back to life. That’s another battle yet to be faced.

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At Flight Simulators Midlands, we are fortunate to have a strong public market for people who want to see what it is like to be a commercial pilot. Of course, at the moment we are closed, but will emerge on the other side.

So in the meantime, as soon as it’s safe, Professional Flight Training is offering special rates for pilots wanting to keep their hand in. We find that it can go very quickly, so we are trying to keep up with the speed of the operation. We all know what it’s like to come back from an extended holiday.

Ideally, we would like you to come in pairs and opt to have an instructor or not to keep the costs under control. You can choose to practice whatever you wish on our A320, 737, or 747 at less than half the normal price.

We may also need a few extra instructors when this is all over, so keep that in mind.