The commercial aviation industry is a major part of the U.S. transportation infrastructure and a key contributor to the nation's economy. The industry is facing the effects of a reduced role by the military as a source of high-quality trained personnel, particularly pilots and mechanics. At the same time, it is facing the challenges of a changing American workforce. This book is a study of the civilian training and education programs needed to satisfy the work-force requirements of the commercial aviation industry in the year 2000 and beyond, with particular emphasis on issues related to access to aviation careers by women and minorities.

The U.S. aviation industry and jobs : keeping American manufacturing competitive : hearing before the Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, second session, March 13, 2014.

President George W. Bush and the Congress created the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry to evaluate the current and future health of the industry as well as the challenges that lie ahead for the U.S. workforce and the economy. To accomplish our mission, we commissioned a study on the economic impact of the aerospace industry nationally and on a state-by-state basis, using the best available U.S. government data. This study sought to define the core of the aerospace industry. The resulting data represents that very core those jobs specifically tied to commercial and civilian aerospace. U.S. Aerospace and Aviation: A State-by-State Analysis examines the civilian and commercial aerospace and aviation industry by employment, wages, payroll, and establishments. The report found that the U.S. civilian and commercial aerospace and aviation industry employed over 2 million workers in 2001. Unspecified Center

"And you thought the passengers were mad. Airline employees are fed up, too-with pay cuts, increased workloads and management's miserly ways, which leave workers to explain to often-enraged passengers why flying has become such a miserable experience."—New York Times, December 22, 2007When both an industry's workers and its customers report high and rising frustration with the way they are being treated, something is fundamentally wrong. In response to these conditions, many of the world's airlines have made ever-deeper cuts in services and their workforces. Is it too much to expect airlines, or any other enterprise, to provide a fair return to investors, high-quality reliable service to their customers, and good jobs for their employees?Measured against these three expectations, the airline industry is failing. In the first five years of the twenty-first century alone, U.S. airlines lost a total of $30 billion while shedding 100,000 jobs, forcing the remaining workers to give up over $15 billion in wages and benefits. Combined with plummeting employee morale, shortages of air traffic controllers, and increased congestion and flight delays, a total collapse of the industry may be coming. Is this state of affairs inevitable? Or is it possible to design a more sustainable, less volatile industry that better balances the objectives of customers, investors, employees, and the wider society? Does deregulation imply total abrogation of government's responsibility to oversee an industry showing the clear signs of deterioration and increasing risk of a pending crisis?Greg J. Bamber, Jody Hoffer Gittell, Thomas A. Kochan, and Andrew von Nordenflycht explore such questions in a well-informed and engaging way, using a mix of quantitative evidence and qualitative studies of airlines from North America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Up in the Air provides clear and realistic strategies for achieving a better, more equitable balance among the interests of customers, employees, and shareholders. Specifically, the authors recommend that firms learn from the innovations of companies like Southwest and Continental Airlines in order to build a positive workplace culture that fosters coordination and commitment to high-quality service, labor relations policies that avoid long drawn-out conflicts in negotiating new agreements, and business strategies that can sustain investor, employee, and customer support through the ups and downs of business cycles.