Turkey is tackling pilot retention by barring pilots from going to work for carriers in other countries. The authoritarian government’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation has changed the rules and will not allow Turkish pilots to transfer to foreign carriers for at least the next six months. According to Airways Magazine the change is being made to ensure adequate staffing for domestic airlines during the summer and beyond. The publication is reporting that “the applications of flight crews who want to join foreign airline companies without a permission certificate will not be accepted.” Turkish pilots are reacting, but carefully.
The Civil Aviation Union of Turkey released a statement on Wednesday saying it’s considering its options. “We will be in contact with DGCA in the coming days … and at the same time our legal consultancy is conducting an investigation,” the union said in a statement. “Our initiatives will continue to protect the interests of our members.”
Laughable. What happens when such pilots go on vacation to another country and simply fail to return? Government meddling in free markets always results in human action not anticipated by government. “Liberty implies the absence of government.” Mises
Unhappy and disgruntled pilots in the cockpits here, there, and everywhere. I was waiting for a 3 hour late SWA at LGB recently. The flight’s Captain was leaning against one of the gate podiums. Our flight was sitting out in the penalty box, had been for an hour, waiting for a gate, of course while the hostage passengers sat missing what ever they were headed to next. The plane at the gate had the passengers on board, been on board for at least 20 minutes. The baggage carts still were arriving for the baggage to be loaded. One, one only person, a non motivated person, casually loaded one bag at a time very slowly on the belt. I eased up to the Captain and said that which we were watching sucked. He said it certainly did. He said at one time in his career, he would have gone out on the ramp and helped get those bags going onto his plane faster. He said if he did such a thing now, both his union and the baggage crushers’ union would have his ass. He concluded with, “I’ve only got two more f##king years left with this crap.” And he was from SWA, the happy folks.
Turkey is an increasingly autocratic society, that will ruin it just like happened in Putinssia.
Turkey has much manufacturing capability – the Ford Transit Connect small van is made there, an armed UAV is (Ukrainians like it).
And is in NATO – unfortunately, as it is veering toward Islamic Totalitarianism.