Supply of Dispatchers

[Flagship_dxer]

Pinnacle is hiring 40-50 new dispatchers. ExpressJet for 18. Silver is looking and Republic hires regularly.

At what point does the supply of willing and qualified dispatchers run out?

Dispatch is a small world. There arent a lot of us. Most schools have a majority or large minority at least of students from overseas. Of those domestic students, many are looking for internal jobs at their own airline and others have no interest in relocating to places like MSP and MEM.

What kind of dispatch hiring would it take to create an actual shortage of dispatchers? Dispatch schools can license someone in a month. Airlines sign them off in another month. But at what point does the number of open jobs exceed those that are willing to work at these places for those kinds of wages?

 

[MT]

Further compound that by the majors having a huge ready to retire population. Gonna be interesting for sure.

 

[BWER]

So two months to get a qualified dispatcher? Doesn't sound all that bad.

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[MT]

10-12 weeks minimum from what's a dispatcher to signed off at an airline I would say.

 

[FXMXC]

Pinnacle is hiring 40-50 new dispatchers. ExpressJet for 18. Silver is looking and Republic hires regularly.

At what point does the supply of willing and qualified dispatchers run out?

Dispatch is a small world. There arent a lot of us. Most schools have a majority or large minority at least of students from overseas. Of those domestic students, many are looking for internal jobs at their own airline and others have no interest in relocating to places like MSP and MEM.

What kind of dispatch hiring would it take to create an actual shortage of dispatchers? Dispatch schools can license someone in a month. Airlines sign them off in another month. But at what point does the number of open jobs exceed those that are willing to work at these places for those kinds of wages?

I don't think you will see that happen. Just like you said dispatch is a small group even with pending retirements you will not see a shortage that you would see like in the pilot or mechanic ranks. Even though the regionals pay quite poor a new dispatcher makes what a new A@P mechanic makes and it takes the mechanic anywhere from 15 to 18 months to obtain his certificate as opposed to 5 to 6 weeks for the dispatcher. Both fields go to the regionals for the same reason to gain experience to move on to the majors for the better money. The return on investment for a dispatcher is quite good when you think about it. Top DX'rs are pulling in the low 6 figures at FX and mid 6 figures at UPS and now SWA. I don't think I know of a trade or certification in any field medical, mechanical, etc that can be obtained in 5 to 6 weeks. Most are a year at the earliest. That makes it tempting for airline employees already working in other areas to look at dispatch as a career move. Wish I done it 20+ yrs ago in my ignorance I just never knew what dispatch really did. I envy those of you young people on here who are wise to it and got the DX early and can make a career of it...I don't really think there will ever be a true shortage IMHO.

 

[manniax]

I doubt the majors will ever have a shortage. The regionals? It's possible but rather unlikely - I remember the same thing being predicted when all planes with more than 10 seats started being required to have dispatchers (was at one time 30 seats.) Wages did seem to get driven up slightly - while they are still low they aren't as low as they were when I entered the industry (I remember one regional offering 21K per year, only after you got signed off, as late as 1999.) I think some small operators in Alaska had trouble and got an extension on the requirement but nobody else did. This is actually part of Jeppesen's argument for contract dispatch services - that there could be not enough qualified dispatchers available for a startup airline - but I think the facts over the years do not support that argument at all.