The Government is being warned New Zealand risks losing its pilots overseas as skill shortages hit almost every industry.
The country is currently grappling with major staffing shortages with the healthcare, agriculture, teaching, hospitality and tourism industries all crying out for help.
It comes amid fears more Kiwis are planning to leave after new figures showed more than one million Kiwis are actively considering moving overseas as the brain drain takes full force.
And as the borders reopen there are concerns New Zealand's pilots could be poached overseas.
Speaking with AM on Monday New Zealand Air Line Pilots' Association President Captain Andrew Ridling said there is an international shortage and companies are actively trying to recuit Kiwi pilots.
Ridling said the country is currently re-training pilots that were furloughed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but once they're trained many could start eyeing up jobs overseas.
"It's [labour shortages] is affecting the whole industry in New Zealand and it's affecting globally."
Ridling said he has been warning the Government about the staffing issues for more than a year.
"We have been warning the Government about that now for an excess of 12 months as flight school shut down over COVID-19 that pilot supply chain really does need to be looked at."
He said the Government is yet to do anything but it's desperately needed. Ridling warned current projections show the Asia-Pacific region is looking at a shortfall of 29,000 pilots by 2030, and New Zealand is expected to start seeing issues by just mid-next year.
"We've got overseas industries and overseas airlines in New Zealand at the moment interviewing New Zealand's pilots. It could cause a problem long term.
"We've got a… battery supply of pilots through until about mid next year where there won't be an issue where we are affected or our airlines are affected but after about mid next year we could start to see some of those impacts affecting our airlines."
Ridling said the Government needs to do something to ensure New Zealand has enough pilots.
"We need to start looking at our visa system, we need to start looking at our flight schools, we've got to get our training systems back up and running again, which were shut down because of the COVID pandemic."
Ridling's call comes after a hospitality business owner begged the Government to do more to address staffing shortages in his industry last week.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/07/hospitality-owner-defends-industry-after-minister-blames-poor-pay-conditions-for-severe-staffing-shortage.html
And staff shortages might be about to get worse. The latest Consumer Snapshot from business management platform MYOB, a nationwide poll of more than 500 people, shows four percent of those polled - equivalent to around 200,000 New Zealanders - have decided they are moving overseas to live and work now the borders have reopened.
The most alarming figures showed an additional 20 percent of those surveyed, equivalent to approximately 1,025,000 people based on population data, said they are actively considering moving offshore.
This is a drastic rise in pre-pandemic trends with just less than 41,000 Kiwis leaving New Zealand to go overseas for at least 12 months in 2019. The figures are based on population data from Stats NZ.
When asked why they were considering a move abroad, half said they could get a better salary, 44 percent said it's for a better quality of life or the cost of living is better overseas while 34 percent wanted to experience living and working in another country.
The Government has defended itself though, with Labour Minister Megan Woods, who was filling in for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on AM last week, saying they are working hard to fix worker shortages.
"What we are in is actually an international shortage. I've just been overseas and New Zealand isn't the only country experiencing this," Woods said.
"We do need to be doing two things. We need to be making sure that we're doing everything to train our own workers for those jobs but we also are doing what we need to do, and that is make sure we get those Working Holiday Visas open again.
"And more than that, we've got our Prime Minister on the road expanding those schemes. We're seeing that with Spain, we're seeing that with the UK in her recent trip. This certainly is an area of focus for us as a Government… We know how important it is."
