CONVERSATIONS WITH OUR LEADERS: STEPHANIE BENTO, MHIRJ

Crystal Maguire, Executive Director of the Aviation Technician Education Council (ATEC), discussed the vital role of education, advocacy, and collaboration in addressing the industry’s maintenance workforce shortage. From policy reforms to training access, Maguire shared how ATEC is helping bridge the gap between classrooms and careers in aviation.

Crystal: I’m Crystal McGuire, Executive Director of the Aviation Technician Education Council. It's the trade association that represents aviation maintenance training schools certificated by the Federal Aviation Administration. Those schools create about 80% of all new aircraft mechanics.

MHIRJ: What is the D.C. Fly-In, and why is it so important?

Crystal: Every year, we come to Washington, D.C., to talk about top issues having to do with workforce funding, workforce demand, workforce shortages, and creating qualified technical personnel.

We come in, brief everyone on the first day, discuss the hot issues, and talk with FAA officials about what's going on with the regulatory environment. Then, prepare everyone for meetings the next day. Tomorrow, we're going to have 80 meetings about how to help train the next generation of mechanics.

MHIRJ: Why do these advocacy efforts matter?

Crystal: We're looking at about a 10% shortage over the next decade. We focus primarily on policy initiatives that remove barriers in the pipeline. So, from Kindergarten through Grade 12, through secondary education, and into apprenticeship programs and work-to-learn type programs, we help someone go from A to Z.

MHIRJ: What are our barriers along that chain, in terms of workforce, and how do we tackle and eliminate those barriers?

Crystal: We have a lot of funding that has been provided through congressional directives in the past to support these types of workforce programs. We're on the Hill explaining how that has really helped our industry, how it has helped tackle some of the shortage issues, and to encourage the dollars to keep flowing to support those programs.

MHIRJ: What are some of the struggles, and how is ATEC providing support to those challenges?

Crystal: From the industry's perspective, a lot of times we hear things like there are training gaps and students coming into employment. How do we get those folks to work quicker and faster? How can we collaborate with the training community to ensure that individuals learn as much as possible in school, so that they're ready to hit the ground running?

On the industry side, that has a lot to do with our advocacy efforts with the Federal Aviation Administration to make sure that our certification process is where it needs to be, that we're correctly defining the knowledge and skill requirements for a mechanic, and then getting industry and education in the same room to talk about where are we seeing shortfalls and, how can we improve the training cycle.

How can industry be more involved in the classroom to ensure that schools have the necessary resources to train personnel effectively?

Also, funding. For our schools, they need the right equipment and the right technical data to train personnel effectively, enabling them to hit the ground running.

The industry often is a big supporter of our schools. We also have the opportunity to discuss with other FAA officials some of the challenges we face in the regulatory environment and how we can work through them to create more effective pathways for people.

MHIRJ: What makes the transition from student to certified mechanic most challenging?

Crystal: One of the challenges that we have is testing capacity. Not only knowledge testing but also making sure that we've got access to the testing centers, and that every applicant has access to a designated mechanic examiner. We reported that the number of those DMEs actually decreased in the last year, while our enrollment numbers are increasing, which is good, but it's creating quite a bottleneck.

All those folks still need to be tested, so our last available DMEs in the community have to conduct more tests. But also, how can we do other things, perhaps outside the box, to increase testing capacity?

MHIRJ: What keeps you motivated about this work?

Crystal: This group is very effective on the Hill. One of the reasons is that we have industry, education, and labor all working together.

I like to call ATEC the common denominator often because we're all about the workforce.

MHIRJ: Do you have any final thoughts?

Crystal: People want to make an impact. I think people are always surprised when they come to the Fly-In, that they have such access to members of Congress and staff, and we've had such great successes in the past. We did a reform of Part 147, which is the regulation that oversees A&P schools, and that was done through our legislative advocacy.

Ultimately, it was a regulation, but we were able to drive changes to those regulations through our legislative activities. It was a game-changer for this community, and we were able to undertake initiatives like these and advocate for them here at the Fly-In. In the end, the big takeaway for a lot of people is they come in and they just didn't know.

This is easy. It's not scary. The congressional office buildings are open and accessible to the public. It's just a matter of putting them in a position to be successful and communicating the types of things that will make a difference.

While attending the Regional Airline Association’s 50th Anniversary event, we spoke with Marissa Snow, Managing Director of Communications at SkyWest, about the essential role of regional aviation in linking smaller communities to global networks. From post-pandemic recovery to essential air service, Snow shared how SkyWest continues to deliver reliable connections across North America.

Marissa: Hi, I'm Marissa Snow with SkyWest Incorporated. I'm Managing Director of Communications and happy to be here today with the RAA where we're talking about the importance of safe, reliable air service to all of North America, but also to small rural communities, which is where SkyWest began 53 years ago. Our roots are with small community air service. SkyWest is the largest operator in North America, with over 500 aircraft. We also serve over 250 airports across North America.

MHIRJ: What are your observations about domestic travel?

Marissa: Post pandemic, the demand in small and medium sized communities has really gotten stronger than ever. A lot of urban dwellers have moved to these small and mid-sized communities, but they still need that vital connectivity to the mass.

Passengers need access to the global networks we provide via United, Delta, American Airlines and Alaska. We're able to give them that vital economic link. They can maintain their business travel and their leisure travel.

Since they bore the brunt of the service losses and the captain shortage, it’s more important than ever. Communities are beginning to understand how vital the service is to their economic development.

MHIRJ: What is essential air service and how does SkyWest support those communities?

Marissa: Essential air service is exactly that. It's essential funding from the federal government that allows these communities to maintain some level of air service. In recent years, they've been challenged with maintaining that air service with the captain shortage and everything else.

But it really is the essential uplink to the national aviation transportation infrastructure. We have several communities that we do serve under the AS and, and the objective is to grow the demand so they are self-sustaining so that they can maintain their safe, reliable air service beyond the program. And we're really seeing that grow and develop and, and the communities are very invested in making it successful. It really is a critical component of our aviation infrastructure here in the U.S.

MHIRJ: What are SkyWest’s current goals?

Marissa: The two things that we're always focused on is delivering exceptional, safe, reliable service. And I think that's where the industry really come together. How can we continue to innovate, evolve, adapt and move forward so that these small and mid-sized communities continue to also grow and develop, and stay connected to the national infrastructure as well as the global networks.

MHIRJ: What are your thoughts on RAA reaching its 50-Year Milestone?

Marissa: Congratulations to RAA on 50 years. It's a huge milestone. We've seen so much change in the industry, but advocating and educating public and Washington on the importance and the safety and reliability of regional service, regional jets, working through the captain shortage, it really has been a journey and we look forward to the next 50 years.

 

We spoke with Livia Hayes, Director at Oliver Wyman Vector, about the latest findings from the annual ATEC Aviation Technician Pipeline Report. From maintenance demand to workforce shortages driven by retirements and changing career pathways, Hayes shared key insights into what’s shaping the technician pipeline.

Livia: Hi, I'm Livia Hayes from Oliver Wyman Vector, here at the 2025 Aviation Technician Education Council Fly-In.

MHIRJ: What is the Pipeline Report?

Livia: Our pipeline report is something that we do in conjunction with ATEC every year. We help administer the survey that the schools take, and then we collate the results and issue the report out with findings on how the technician pipeline is doing here in the United States. 

MHIRJ: What surprised you the most with this year's results?

Livia: We had a year-over-year decrease in the number of students being certificated, and also the number of people entering the industry from the military.

However, it was still a second all-time high, which is really positive. Despite those increases, we're still projecting a shortage of workers in this industry for the next decade. We're in a current shortage now, and it's projected to get worse, especially as maintenance demands increase over the next ten years as fleets grow here in the United States.

MHIRJ: The report mentions a "super cycle of maintenance," can you explain what that is?

Livia: We've entered the post-Covid era. We've now surpassed previous peaks of number of aircraft flying and also the amount that they're flying. So, what drives maintenance demand in the aviation industry is how much airplanes are flying. And we're well beyond the peaks that happened in 2019. Not only are we at new high levels, we're also still playing a little bit of catch up from maintenance that was deferred during that time.

What we say is that this year we've entered a super cycle of maintenance demand, and that is not expected to let up for any time soon.

MHIRJ: What insights have you gathered from the schools and industry?

Livia: What's interesting is that students are now going straight to large operators, where they used to go to school repair stations first and receive training, and then move on to operators later. So, there's a real juniority impact that we see with students going straight into the operators. They are less productive. It takes about 3 to 5 years for a new student to be as productive as an experienced person.

And the shortage that we're projecting is going to be driven by a large number of retirements coming. This is going to continue to be an issue for the industry going forward. What's really interesting is the work that ATEC does in order to address some of these items are really starting to pay off. 

We've seen a number of certificates go up. We've seen, slowly but surely, the number of military pathway people increasing. It's really important to keep this work going.

We're projecting a large number of retirements to come even though we're passed that Covid retirement wave. So, it's going to be even more important to keep this work going forward, especially as the aviation and MRO industry tries to grow in North America.