Airnorth (Australia) (TL, Darwin) has cancelled dozens of flights across Australia's Northern Territory due to the lack of qualified pilots to fly the airline's Embraer aircraft, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has reported.
The Australian regional specialist said in a statement that while it has invested AUD500,000 (USD400,000) in pilot recruitment, it still has 11 positions vacant. Other cockpit crew members employed recently are still undergoing training and are not yet available for commercial passenger operations.
Although the pilot shortage is a global phenomenon, the issue has been made worse in Australia by a 2017 federal government decision to temporarily rescind working visas to foreign pilots. Regional carriers had drawn heavily on experienced captains coming from abroad as Australian pilots are lured away by major local airlines.
The Australian government has already reinstated the working visas programme for foreign pilots, but Airnorth is still trying to catch up with the training delays generated during the scheme's suspension last year.
Airnorth operates the bulk of its regional services in the Northern Territory with four E120 and three Metroliner turboprops, while five E170LRs are used on trunk regional routes and on longer flights, including to Toowoomba Wellcamp and Melbourne Tullamarine, and Dili.
