Assessment of Pilots’ Labor Migration in the Context of State Aviation Policy

The article deals with the problems of state policy implementation in the field of development of domestic passenger air traffic—pilots’ labor migration in Russian airlines. From the theoretical perspective, the research is based on papers about labor migration of skilled workers and, in addition, is expanded by industry publications on the selection and change of the employer company by flight crew members. Aviation regulators are faced with  a  serious  problem—the  need  to  fit  new  models  of  operating  activities  of  airlines  into  the  priorities  and measures of state policy in the field of aviation activities. The empirical part of the research is a case using a set of quantitative and qualitative data: the results of a pilots’ survey in the largest Russian airline Aeroflot, materials of interviews with industry experts, state statistics and the industry regulator of the Federal Air Transport Agency. According to the results of assessing intentions to change the company, high wages at a new workplace is the main motivating factor of international migration for Russian pilots. In addition, the need for career growth encourages pilots to change jobs, but rather at home than abroad. An inverse U-shaped dependence was revealed between the propensity for labor migration and the age of the pilot. The presented work makes up for the lack of research in the field of peculiarities of the functioning of companies in the important infrastructure industry of passenger air transport. The article contributes to the research of the aviation industry in terms of conditions of sustainable development, as well as to the analysis of factors of labor migration among representatives of professions with narrow qualifications. The conclusions obtained in the study can be used to create comprehensive state policy measures to retain qualified personnel in Russian airlines.

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