Transport Canada licensing backlog slowing careers, aspiring pilots say

Against the backdrop of a global pilot shortage, hopefuls aspiring to a career in the skies say their Canadian licensing applications are taking far too long to process.

Student pilots who have completed the training requirements for their private or commercial pilots’ licences say their credentials are being delayed due to what they say are unacceptably lengthy processing times at Transport Canada.

Adam Sheard, a Vancouver man who hopes to become an airline pilot, completed all of the requirements for his commercial pilot’s licence — a combination of ground school study and a minimum of 200 hours of flight training — in May 2022.

After submitting the necessary paperwork to Transport Canada, he said he expected to receive his licence within a couple of months — which other pilots have told him used to be the normal wait period.

However, Sheard said he ultimately didn’t receive his documentation until January 2023.

“I finished my commercial license, and for seven months the only thing I had was my private license,” Sheard said, adding the long wait meant he could not apply for a starting job at any of this country’s small, regional carriers. “If you’re trying to apply for jobs, they’re going to say we need to see your commercial pilots’ licence. I ended up taking a job as a flight instructor instead.”

Sheard said early in the pandemic, Transport Canada warned aspiring pilots that processing times were taking longer than usual. While he said that’s understandable, he doesn’t know why — three years later — it’s still taking the regulator so long to issue pilot certifications.

Colin Mackenzie, another pilot hopeful, said many trainee pilots in Canada are experiencing extreme delays with the processing of their aviation medical exams — the certificates of health that all pilots need before they can fly.

He said his own experience pursuing medical certification has been “terrible,” adding he’s been waiting for months since submitting his medical data, with no response from Transport Canada.

In an email, Transport Canada spokesperson Hicham Ayoun did not say whether the regulator is encountering general difficulties or delays in pilot licence processing. However, he did say that when it comes to new aviation medical certifications specifically, wait times can sometimes exceed targeted service delivery timelines. Transport Canada processes about 60,000 applications for aviation medical certificates annually, he said, most of which are for reissuance of existing medical certificates and are processed quickly. Mackenzie and Sheard said they’re frustrated by the situation not only because they believe it’s slowing their career progression, but also because they keep seeing headlines about the North American pilot shortage.

Aviation analysts say the pilot labour shortage is worsening based on a variety of factors including an aging workforce, pandemic-related layoffs and early retirements, and spiralling training costs.

In January, vacation airline Sunwing blamed its spate of holiday season flight disruptions and cancellations in part on a pilot shortage.