Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced brand new investigations into airline companies over the weekend, but then shot down any possibility of raising the retirement age for pilots as labor shortages continue to be a problem.
We can literally put anyone else in this position and they would do a better job than Buttigieg. Technically, a leather shoe could do better. Heck, I’d go so far as to say a one-armed monkey with an eye patch would be a step up from this clown.
Buttigieg spoke with Fox News host Mike Emanuel during an interview where he stated that his agency has “just concluded another ten investigations on airlines” concerning delayed and canceled flights but added they’ve also “launched another ten or so that we’re going to pursue to make sure that the consumers and passengers are protected.”
You know what caused all of this madness?
Trying to force everyone to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Mandates caused tons of labor shortages in a number of different fields. However, with pilots being a very specialized profession, when you start to lose them in droves, well, that’s something that’s going to be felt all across the board.
According to a report from The Daily Wire, “Indeed, more than 3,000 cancellations met passengers in June as a bout of extreme weather hit the Eastern seaboard; Buttigieg, therefore, asked executives to work on avoiding cancellations during Fourth of July travel. Yet more than 1,800 cancellations occurred during the holiday weekend.”
“In 2007, Congress raised the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots from 60 to 65. Emanuel asked Buttigieg whether he would consider raising the age to 67 — a proposal that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is reportedly preparing. Buttigieg responded negatively,” the report continued.
“These retirement ages are there for a reason, and the reason is safety. I’m not going to be on board with anything that could compromise safety,” Buttigieg responded. “Now, what’s clearly the case is we need to cultivate, train, and support a new generation of qualified pilots.”
With the number of passengers going swirly down the toilet at warp speed back in 2020 thanks to the COVID pandemic, several airlines offered some of their employees early retirement packages.
These airlines are now working to try and hire more than 12,000 pilots, according to a report from NBC News, as close to 5,800 pilots are about to reach the age of 65 each year.
As a response, Buttigieg stressed the need to train new, young aviators.
“The answer is not to keep the Baby Boomer generation in the cockpit indefinitely,” he added. “The answer is to make sure we have as many and as good pilots ready to take their place, to have a stronger pipeline. We’re backing that up with FAA programs that support high school and college curriculum to get into aviation, and of course, ultimately, it’ll be for the airlines and those employers to hire and retain excellent talent.”
Check out more from The Daily Wire:
Airlines have also considered decreasing training requirements in response to the shortage. Delta said in January that it would introduce signing bonuses and hike pay while removing the requirement for the completion of a bachelor’s degree.
“‘While we feel as strongly as ever about the importance of education, there are highly qualified candidates — people who we would want to welcome to our Delta family — who have gained more than the equivalent of a college education through years of life and leadership experience,” the airline announced. “Making the four-year degree requirement preferred removes unintentional barriers to our Delta flight decks.’”
Meanwhile, Republic Airways — a regional carrier for Delta, American Airlines, and United Airlines — sought government permission in April to cut the required number of training hours from 1,500 to 750 for its new pilots.
This story syndicated with permission from michael, Author at Trending Politics
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