Pilots happily redeploy down to earth

Former airline pilots are turning up in the most surprising places, as they hunt down work to tide them through the pandemic.

‘It’s really good to find secure employment after being stood down,’ say bus-driving former pilots Chris Davis and Clint Butcher. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

In one of the more ironic twists of the COVID crisis, highly skilled pilots once labelled as “glorified bus drivers” by former prime minister Bob Hawke are now just that.

Public transport provider Transdev has already hired nearly 30 former aviation workers, including pilots, cabin crew and ground handlers, and is on the hunt for more.

The new roles have been shared across the company’s Australian and New Zealand operations, with 13 based in Auckland and the rest in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

Transdev Australasia chief people and culture officer Paul Birch is himself a veteran of the aviation sector, having worked for Ansett in Australia and Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi.

He said they were a lot of synergies between the public transport and aviation sectors. “The aviation sector is renowned for its focus on safety, operational excellence and a strong customer service culture, which are areas that very much align with our business and the public transport industry at large,” Mr Birch said.

“While the vehicles, routes and altitude may be different, we are people serving people and the expectations around safe, friendly and professional service remain the same.”

He said the new employees were making a “noticeable contribution to the business, commencing roles as trainee train or bus drivers, customer service or in corporate services”.

Former Jetstar 787-8 first officer Clint Butcher and ex-Qantas 787-9 second officer Chris Davis are among Transdev’s new bus driver recruits in Brisbane.

Mr Davis said he would not have believed it if someone had told him six months ago that he’d be driving buses by the end of the year. “I would’ve told them to go jump,” he laughed. “But it’s really good to find secure employment after being stood down, and with not too many prospects in the aviation sector.”

Mr Butcher said the challenge of bus driving was “fantastic” but he did hope to return to flying, which had been his passion for 22 years. “We’re both international (pilots) so we’ll be the last ones to go back to work,” he said.

“Transdev has provided us with a great opportunity to do this, because previously we didn’t have any bus or heavy vehicle driving experience so to invest in training us like this is fantastic.”

Australian and International Pilots Association president Mark Sedgwick said pilots had much to offer with their “excellent instinctive ­decision-making skills, inherent reliability and a sensible personality profile”.

“In some cases they may need some brief occupational training but otherwise they will hit the ground running,” he said.

With Qantas and Virgin Australia cutting more than 10,000 workers between them, more placements were likely and Mr Birch said a targeted recruitment campaign was being planned by Transdev.