Airlines face pilot shortage

Dave Siciliano

Final Approach
Joined
Feb 27, 2005
Messages
6,434
Location
Dallas, Texas
Display Name

Display name:
Dave Siciliano
Did everyone see the WSJ article today at B7 that says the airlines face a pilot shortage that may slow the industries' growth? The International Air Transport Association reckons that the industry needs 3,000 more pilots per year than training schools can provide.

Interesting to those interested in the bus., but has me scrathin my head with all the talk about merging and over capacity.

Best,

Dave
 
Were they talking world wide? If so that would explain it. Air travel is exploding overseas and there are plenty of open, decent paying pilot jobs.
 
Were they talking world wide? If so that would explain it. Air travel is exploding overseas and there are plenty of open, decent paying pilot jobs.

Yes, pretty much. I have been hearing about imminent pilot shortages domestically for 25 years. They never seem to happen.
 
In the US I always imagine it is something like this: "There is a pilot shortage......at the rate at which we want to pay them"

Except there's not.

Well, that may not be ENTIRELY true. Some of the regionals are having a hard time keeping pilots for that and other reasons. Mainly work rules.
 
The numbers are real. Greg won't see the problem at his level for a few more years, but the regionals are already seriously hurting for co-pilots with sufficient operational experience to move straight into the right seat of an RJ and function effectively. If you want to learn more, go here and look for the General Aviation and Pilot Supply session on Day 2 -- presentations are posted.
 
Not surprised when a skilled person can earn a lot more in other industries (and get more respect, to boot). As the airlines insist on turning pilots into bus-drivers, they gotta realize that folks will leave.
 
I have thought about becoming a professional pilot....for about three seconds.

I am highly educated, can get the experience to meet the minimums, and would be dedicated to the profession.

However I would have to take a 70% decrease in pay to start, and then MAYBE get back to where I am at today in another decade.

No thanks.

The airlines can cry about their pilot shortage, however until they up the payscale, they will continue to have one.
 
It seems to me that the best way the airlines can help ameliorate the pilot shortage is to lobby for changes in federal law and processes which drive the costs of the flight training and general aviation flying necessary to produce qualified pilot candidates up dramatically.

/sarcasm
 
Not surprised when a skilled person can earn a lot more in other industries (and get more respect, to boot). As the airlines insist on turning pilots into bus-drivers, they gotta realize that folks will leave.

Exactly, with the pay and quality of life issues as they have become, it just doesn't cut it.
 
Had an instructor I flew a couple of hours with that just got hired by a RJ.
Eighteen months ago he was a private pilot. Then he enrolled in a school that got him through MEI. Then the school hired him as an ME instructor where he worked as an MEI and logged about 250 ME hours (total time probably less than 800 hours). At 29 years old with a HS diploma an RJ hired him, guaranteed him 75 hours a month for a little over 22K a year. Apparently his situation is not uncommon. I imagine that upgrade to Captain is several years away where pay is a little better but this guy is looking at P&J on a regular basis for many years. At least from what he told me the RJ's and the large carriers are indeed in need of pilots. I looked at the employment sections of some of the large carrier's web sites and they are hiring. According to him many of the surplus pilots from the Vietnam era that were hired by the airlines are now retiring and that is part of the shortage problem.

Many years ago at 32 with a MS degree and an ATP and several hundred Hrs. of ME time I couldn't get any carrier to even answer the mail. How times have changed! But more power to those that can fulfill their ambitions.
 
With recent and impending bankruptcies I wonder if soon pilots will face an airline shortage?

Talking stateside only, of course, but this cyclical effect may be short lived.
 
It seems to me that the best way the airlines can help ameliorate the pilot shortage is to lobby for changes in federal law and processes which drive the costs of the flight training and general aviation flying necessary to produce qualified pilot candidates up dramatically.

/sarcasm

Sure, sure, at the same time the airlines are trying to kill off GA entirely. They can pull out the checkbooks when they have to offer introductory be-a-pilot flights in 24 seat regional jets.
 
Today, I heard one person suggest they bring back regulation. It seems the legacy airlines will never learn how to operate with a profit in a free market.
 
Today, I heard one person suggest they bring back regulation. It seems the legacy airlines will never learn how to operate with a profit in a free market.
Just one? There is a host of people calling for partial or wholesale reregulation (they are tightly regulated as it is - just not as much as before the so-called "deregulation.")

Will solve a lot problems while creating a bunch more IMO.
 
Today, I heard one person suggest they bring back regulation. It seems the legacy airlines will never learn how to operate with a profit in a free market.

Ken, I have a comment. Upstarts have come and gone, but by and large, it has been the legacies that have survived. Yeah, it has been ugly. But that is partly, if not mostly, due to the fact that the upstarts come in and price the market at an unrealistic and unsustainable low level that the rest have to match. But they do not have the capital themselves to sustain their own pricing and go out of business. Things sort of stabilize until the next round of upstarts start the process all over again.

I will not deny that some very inept managements have been running some of the legacies these days. Trust me, I am painfully aware of that.
 
Ken, I have a comment. Upstarts have come and gone, but by and large, it has been the legacies that have survived. Yeah, it has been ugly. But that is partly, if not mostly, due to the fact that the upstarts come in and price the market at an unrealistic and unsustainable low level that the rest have to match. But they do not have the capital themselves to sustain their own pricing and go out of business. Things sort of stabilize until the next round of upstarts start the process all over again.

I will not deny that some very inept managements have been running some of the legacies these days. Trust me, I am painfully aware of that.
These are a few reasons why I think some level of regulation would be in order. It's a given the old guard of the legacy carriers will never be replaced.

Perhaps some stiff bonds to begin operation so it's not a mere shot at trying to make an upstart work. Even in those cases, the upper management tends to win for a short time and end up being secure for life unlike those doing the actual work.
 
Back
Top