Business View Magazine - Sept 2023

264 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 9 days for Monroe Regional. Butcher happily reports that it’s seeing quite an uptick in general-aviation traffic. Airport traffic has managed to get back up to between 75 to 80 percent of where it was before COVID hit about three and a half years ago. “I know we are on an upward trajectory,” he reveals, “and things have started to pick up.” Coping with the pilot shortage Yet there are post-COVID challenges. There is still a dearth of pilots. That shortage is a thing with which Monroe Regional is continuing to grapple, as Butcher points out. Indeed, he adds, that was among the factors causing United’s departure: not enough pilots to fly to smaller markets. The question remains paramount for the aviation industry as to what is needed to help alleviate this current problem. Train more pilots and airport managers, says Butcher. He cites Louisiana Tech University, just a half-hour’s drive from Monroe, and its degree offered in aviation management. LTU has a flight school and pilot training is offered at the LTU Pilot Career Center. “They do a great job,” Butcher opines, adding that Monroe Regional is involved as well, with a majority of its interns being airfield management majors.The field is now wide open in more ways than one, as Butcher notes, because:“There’s just not much of a backlog of pilots right now.” Expounding upon that theme, Butcher says that when COVID struck, many older pilots simply opted to go ahead and retire, and there wasn’t much of a pool of pilots from which the aviation industry could draw. “They’re struggling now to get those positions filled,” he adds. One thing that Butcher feels could potentially help assuage the pilot shortage crisis is increasing the retirement age by two years. In 2007, it was raised from 60 to 65 years of age. Increasing it yet again now to 67 would especially be a boon to regional airports. You can’t beat experience, and these smooth-