The sky’s the limit as aviation jobs take off: Look up for career opportunities

If you’ve flown this summer, you’ve probably had to cool your heels waiting for a delayed flight. I know I did — and I was flying to an airshow.

Every night, it seems, news broadcasts as dominated by scenes of weary travelers, carry-ons piled around them, the word “CANCELED” repeated on the departures board above them, waiting near a gate for a plane that has yet to arrive, or a flight crew that has yet to arrive to take it aloft.

But in this scene is one of the great contradictions of our time, at least when it comes to career opportunities and those who would benefit from them the most.

Cascading air traffic delays occur for many reasons, but one of them is that there are not enough applicants to fill certain roles, like air traffic controllers, a lingering result of the pandemic slowdown.

These are good, high-paying jobs, jobs that can lift a striver from an under-resourced background into a solidly middle-class future.

But the young people who can most benefit from them come from families also hit hardest by the pandemic, and they struggle to afford the education and training required to gain access to this now-thriving industry.

I’ve worked to educate young people in aviation and engineering for more than 20 years. My students are mostly from New York, mostly from under-served communities and mostly from the boroughs: Queens, after all, is a kind of heaven for aviation folks, with its two major airports and a borough president who is an alum of my college and holds a degree in airport management.

Let me tell you, I’ve never seen anything like the opportunities available today. I see graduates getting multiple job offers.

Five or six years ago, with a degree, 1,300 hours in the air and working as a flight instructor, you could expect to start as a first officer for a regional airline at $30,000 or less. Now I regularly hear about first officers starting at the regionals at $60,000 or more. One airline is even offering $100,000 sign-on bonuses.

Continuing up the career ladder, a captain of a widebody for one of the major legacy carriers could make $600,000 a year.

But how do you get there?

It will cost $70,000 to $80,000 to get your flight training certification, on top of your tuition. Yes, there are many loans to help, and in today’s job environment, they can be paid off quickly. But what if your family has no credit or poor credit? What if financial hardships from the past are still haunting a future pilot today?

Of course, being a pilot is only one aviation career. The summer delays at airports have been partly attributed to the air traffic controller shortage. You could choose this career with salaries in the six figures in the New York region with an associate degree. Attention to detail and ability to make decisions in a fast-paced environment are key.

Aviation maintenance technicians once making $18 an hour now start at roughly $33 an hour, and you can earn your credentials including an associate degree, in only 16 months. This is someone who likes hands-on work, often on a runway, with plenty of nighttime hours, especially in the beginning. Hey — some people like to sleep during the day, right? But getting that degree is crucial, because industry partnerships and connections make a difference for that all-important first professional position.

At the recent mega-air show in Oshkosh, Wis. — which I was late getting to because of flight delays — Boeing released its annual employment forecast. The company estimated that commercial aviation will need 649,000 pilots, 690,000 technicians and 938,00 cabin crew members over the next 20 years. This is the first time the annual forecast has seen a jump since the pandemic.

For graduates to get that all-important first job, they need critical career help: resume writing, interview practice, financial support to attend industry events and twice annual career fairs. The good news is that airlines and aviation companies like Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, JetBlue and others want to be connected early and often to motivated students.

The key to solving the aviation workforce shortage, from drone designers to airport managers, is to build awareness about the incredible opportunities that exist within diverse communities who just need information about the industry. Coupled with greater financial support from New York and the federal government, affordable degrees and certification programs create a long-term pipeline for great paying jobs that will contribute to New York City’s and this nation’s prosperity.

DeVivo is president of Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in East Elmhurst, Queens.