The pilot shortage continues to tighten its grip on the marketplace, and yet the NetJets Executive Management Team refuses to take proactive steps to attract and to retain increasingly scarce pilot talent – a misstep that has emerged as a foremost concern for the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP).
A professional labor advocate, NJASAP represents the interests of the 2,900-plus pilots who fly in the service of NetJets Aviation, a Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) subsidiary.
“We are watching management teams across the industry – from legacy carriers to ultra-low-cost carriers – take bold steps to reinforce their competitive footing for top pilot talent,” NJASAP president Capt. Pedro Leroux said. “We fear NetJets’s intransigence on this industry-shaping moment will have very serious consequences for the brand’s ability to deliver the unparalleled safety and service product for which our customers pay a premium.”
Maintaining its status as a career destination carrier is vital to NetJets’s continued dominance as the global leader in the fractional air transportation sector – a position rooted in the promise of a safe, dynamic and reliable product. Providing service to more than 5,000 airports across 200-plus countries and territories around the globe confirms NetJets supports the most dynamic operational environment on the planet. Compare those statistics to the legacy carriers that provide service, on average, to 262 destinations.
“NetJets stands alone here,” Leroux said. “The unsurpassed number and location of the airports we service – many of which are uncontrolled fields in remote locations with unique risks – leaves zero doubt that NetJets requires a pilot force with unmatched experience and proficiency.”
A NetJets pilot performs flight operations into 20 times as many airports as his or her major airline peer, demanding a far more expansive skill set developed across many years of practical application.
Leroux said, “NetJets owners and customers deserve more than flying in the back of a flight school aircraft. Unless the fractional takes aggressive steps to pursue and to retain the best aviators in the marketplace, what was once the pinnacle of an aviator’s career will transition into a stepping stone toward the nation’s Part 121 carriers.”
