Southwest airlines reviews covid4/5/2023 ![]() What are airlines doing to fix the pilot shortage? A combination of the spike in jet fuel costs and recent pay increases for pilots means each plane would have to be about 90% full on every flight to just about break even. But the planes they parked are 50-seat regional jets, which are no longer profitable for the airline to fly. The airline had to admit it didn't have the pilots to fly them. ![]() Recently, American Airlines parked 100 of its fleet. The other reason for the current pilot shortage is the aircraft many of them are flying. But one government estimate projects a shortfall of 18,000-plus pilots each year for the next decade. Over the last couple of years, the FAA has issued about 6,500 pilot licenses each year. Government statistics seem to bear this out. Scott Kirby, United CEO has run the numbers and estimates there are just not enough pilots for the next five years. Becoming certified as a commercial pilot by the FAA requires 250 total flight hours - but individual airlines might require 1,000 or 2,000 hours, the FAA says. Prospective pilots generally need to earn a bachelor's degree and get training from a Federal Aviation Administration-approved program, then get a private pilot's license - which involves passing both written and practical tests - and then earn an instrument rating. You can't just hire someone, have them kick the tires and sit in the left seat. The military has also struggled for years to meet its own goals for training new pilots. They were training as advanced gamers, flying drones.Īnd the military itself doesn't have enough pilots - a Department of Defense report from 2019 says the Air Force has seen shortfalls since 2006, and the service said it was short more than 1,500 pilots at the end of 2016 - "with the deficit expected to grow." By the end of the 2019 fiscal year, it had - to a deficit of 2,100 pilots, according to written testimony submitted to Congress in 2020. Many of the "pilots" in the Air Force were not learning to fly planes. It wasn't as steep a learning curve to move from a military aircraft into the cockpit of a commercial plane.īut over the last two decades, that recruitment avenue slowed substantially. Historically, airlines hired the bulk of their pilots from the military. Why can't the airlines just hire more pilots?
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