Priority Jet Continued from page 45 The company also tries to attract pilots who have CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) experience. “Since they have worked with students, they tend to be that much more trainable, and they come in with the atti- tude that they want to learn,” Waguespack noted. He added that the company has been fortunate in that, historically, its pilot workforce has been very stable. “We have always paid our pilots well and offer them tremendous opportunities,” Waguespack pointed out. “But, we con- tinue to be aware of the fact that the ongoing pilot short- age is getting to be a major problem with the on-demand charter community, especially when it comes to meeting the standards of the operational auditing agencies.” In that regard, he noted that Priority Jet is part of the Wyvern program, and holds an ARG/US Gold rat- ing. The company expects to gain ARG/US Platinum—its top rating—by the fall of this year. It also works very actively with the Air Charter Safety Foundation. Waguespack, who sits on NATA’s Air Charter Committee, has made Priority Jet a leading industry advocate to address major issues impacting all charter operators. Among the biggest is illegal charter activ- ity, along with workforce shortages—particularly among pilots, technicians schedulers and dispatchers. “There are people engaged in charter operations with- out the regulatory authority to do that,” he said. “This presents a grave threat to the legal charter provider, who bears the cost of getting and maintaining a safe FAR 135 operation, and meeting all of the requirements involved with making the aircraft and flight crews conform to the regulations for a charter-ready operation. Those engaged in illegal charters, therefore, have less costs per flight hour “It is why it’s essential for the charter operators to come together to advocate for their own industry.” Aviation Business Journal | 2nd Quarter 2017 than the legitimate operator, but more risk to consum- ers who are all-but-powerless to do anything about this.” The “bigger concern,” he said, is that illegal charter preys upon a trusting public which “thinks it is going aboard an aircraft that has been maintained and operated at standards which are commercial grade. But, in fact, they are taking a tremendous risk,” Waguespack pointed out. “The public does not understand what is involved in maintaining a Part 135 certificate aircraft. What ratings and training do the pilots have? Under what standards do the pilots work with respect to the number of hours or legs per day they can fly? When you fly on the scheduled airlines, you have faith that their pilots have been adequately trained, and the aircraft you’re on is adequately maintained. All of that goes out the win- dow when you’re dealing with any kind of illegal charter.” At the same time, he noted that the FAA does not have the manpower to police the industry, call- ing it an agency that was built around regulations, and not enforcement. “It all goes back to the need for us to educate the flying public about what is going on,” Waguespack said. “There is a lot of misinformation out there, which continues to come up and be a concern.” To address this problem, and other chal- lenges, Waguespack, as a member of the Air Charter Committee, suggested NATA bring the industry together through a series of town hall meetings. He explained: “I suggested this approach because I realized that there was no outreach program spe- cifically focusing on the Part 135 operators, who, I felt, needed to know the problems impacting the indus- try, which can differ from region to region. I wanted people to come out and discuss these issues.” The charter operator town halls got off the ground in 2016 with a beta test in Atlanta, which was attended by 20 operators. Since 20-30 participants per town hall meeting is considered ideal, the test was con- sidered a success, Waguespack explained. A group that size, he reported, encourages conversation. “One of the goals for the meetings is to understand what the industry is doing right and what it is doing wrong,” Waguespack said. Using this information, we can see what the industry needs to do to move the pendulum forward to effect changes in a positive direction. NATA has been very Continued on page 48 47
