While workforce shortages have focused on airline and larger operator needs, the shortages also are beginning to have a significant impact on small businesses and their surrounding communities, agreed industry leaders testifying before a congressional panel today. Led by chairman Steve Knight (R-California), the panel held by the House Small Business Committee’s contracting and workforce subcommittee explored the “troubled skies” affecting maintainers, airports, small operators, and flight schools. “Small businesses are suffering from shortages and bearing a disproportionate burden,” Knight said.

Sarah Oberman Bartush, chief marketing officer and director of business development for Camarillo, California-based CI Jets, outlined how the shortages have been harming her business on multiple fronts: from the charter operation that lost its two most senior pilots, paid $200,000 a piece, to the airlines; to its flight school that has lost 19 instructors to corporate and regional operators over the past three years and now has a 13-person waiting list for flight instruction; to a maintenance shop that has work stacked up and aircraft sitting from a lack of technicians. And, Oberman Bartush added, resumes are not coming in the door.

Martin Lenss, the airport director for Eastern Iowa Airport, stressed that this is an issue that affects everyone. While airports don’t hire pilots or maintenance technicians, they depend on them to bring in business. Adequate air service is critical to supporting the local communities, Lenss added, citing examples of communities that lost major companies to major metropolitan centers that had better air service. One such example was Archer Daniels Midland leaving Decatur, Illinois, for Chicago.

The time of reckoning on the maintenance front will be in 2022, added Brett Levanto, vice president of communications for the Aeronautical Repair Station Association. That is when the demand for technicians is anticipated to outpace available supply. But repair stations are already feeling the pinch, Levanto said, making the situation all the more concerning.

The committee explored multiple paths to help stem some of the shortages. Kenneth Witcher, dean of the College of Aeronautics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, outlined some of these options, such as the Department of Defense’s Career Skillbridge program to transition veterans into the workplace. There must be an understanding that companies don’t automatically need an A&P, he said, but some mechanical skillsets can transfer over for training within a company for a specialty or repair job.

Levanto noted that success stories typically are coming from companies that provide that pathway through in-house training that can eventually lead to an A&P. Knight also pointed to assistance through multiple institutions, whether a four- or two-year program or technical schools. And Lenss noted efforts of airlines to bring in simulators and other tools into middle and high schools to capture the imaginations of students at a younger age. But more needs to be done on that front, Lenss said, adding that government grants and other assistance can go a long way toward such efforts.

Knight agreed that such efforts are necessary, saying that the “cool toys” should be highlighted as often as possible.

NBAA submitted testimony to the hearing, citing the prohibitively high costs of flight training, ranging from $51,000 to $81,000, on top of tuition costs, saying Congress should explore “solutions to student financing challenges at the many flight schools that are small businesses."

Gary Dempsey, the new president of the National Air Transportation Association, praised the subcommittee for focusing on the issue. “Aviation businesses are continuously seeking to hire skilled pilots and mechanics; however, the gap between supply and demand is increasing and small aviation businesses are finding fewer opportunities to support the activity needed to maintain business,” he said in a letter to the committee.