Airline Pilot Forums

With all this talk about airline pilot retirements, it made me wonder about how corporate departments are staffed. How is your corporate department staffed? Planning on any hiring in the next 2-5 years? What do think we will see in the corporate world as far as hiring due to retirements?

Since 91 and 135 don't have the age requirements that 121 does. You will probably see a big lag in retirements on this side. I say this because some people at my work have mentioned 75 as being the magical number. Also you could see some airline retiree's wanting to transition over to 91/135 to supplement their retirement. As far as staffing goes, 91 seems to staff pretty lean and contract out for additional help. 135 can average any where from 2 - 6 pilots per aircraft depending on mission, and customer popularity.

My department (3 aircraft) is presently staffed to 2 flying managers + 7 FT + 1 contract guy. Of those, two pilots will likely retire in the next 3-5 years. The group is spread out age wise from 60 (give or take) to low/mid 30's. Even though there's no restriction at my company, I don't expect many to work past 60-65.

Based on our current schedules, we could probably afford to bring on the contract guy FT and maybe even another since the flying seems to be picking up with the economy.

Many departments have already ramped up for retirements - and even more WOULD have if the economy didn't tank. Many are sitting minimally staffed with imminent retirements.

Not many people work past 65 unless they are broke (likely) or the job is THAT cushy (not likely) Getting beat up flying around the world just does not work much past age 65. There's always the rare exception of the very healthy, love to fly until he dies guy. More power to him/her.

There has been a fair amount of hiring already in our area, but of course there is never a shortage of qualified (read known) guys for the better jobs.

I fly with this guy who is collecting a military pension, and has said he is going to keep working after he starts collecting Social Security. He fully intends to triple dip... but i wonder if his health holds up that long.

Here is a good article that encapsulates the retirement situation in general; to include demographics, the loss of the traditional pension program, accumulated debt, health care costs, real estate losses, etc.

10,000 Boomers to Retire Each Day for 19 Years (http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/RetirementCrisis/2010/12/27/id/381191)

I hope that many "boomer" corporate pilots have weathered our last economic storm and are in a position to retire comfortably.

I was working for a company that would occasionally hire retired airline captains to fly learjets in a part 135 operation. They usually did not last long. They had not done their own flight plans for 30 years. Did not know how to get their own weather and were completely insulted when they learned that they had to load the bags.

In addition the complete lack of work rules was hard for them to deal with as well. Usually they quit after a week or two.

Skyhigh

We have an 11 plane 135 op. Altogether, 18 pilots, in the process of picking up two more. Mostly younger, our oldest pilot is mid-40s.

Couple guys that went regional then came here, couple guys that went from instructing to SIC'ing, couple that came from other 91/135 gigs, all over the place really.

For our entry level position (King Air FO), it's roughly 1000/200. Roughly. We upgrade from there by the individual candidate's workmanship, not seniority.

OT - in SGR right now, what a hell of a crew lounge they got here.

there are quite a few countries that a 65 year old cant fly into. one guy at my company is basically getting squeezed out due to this. we also have a idiot retired airline capt that does contract work but he should just go play golf. he occasionally will offer to work for free. go play bingo if youre bored not try to take food of my plate.

I've seen a handful of senior captains staying on till at least 70.

Some still sharp! Some not so much!

A good pilot always must have the ability to self analyze and have set parameters to show signs of reoccuring "issues", hopefully they realize but we all know that's not necessarily the case.

We all hope for the best future, and every day is constantly changing.

Just my .02!

Fortune 500. 2 aircraft 7 pilots (including director). No planned retirements for the next 5-10 years. Ages from 27 to 50.

Once the majors start hiring we will all see lots of movement. There are alot of 135 / 91 guys out there that will move over to the 121 world. When the majors are going to start hiring is the big question. I realize JB, Fedex, Atlas and SWA are all hiring but not in big numbers (yet). I am an eternal optimist and I think the best case scenario is that mid to late next year Delta, Continental(or United or whatever they will call themselves) and USair will jump on the hiring bus as well and we will see movement all the way across the aviation industry. Just one pilots humble opinion.

I agree. All of the elements are in place for a hiring spree; i.e. low student starts over the last ten years, pilots who have left the industry after two recessions, the aging baby-boomer population, etc.

Your optimism is warranted in another humble pilot's opinion.

I want to be optimistic, but with fuel prices climbing, airline ticket sales are gonna drop, and we may see another slow down in hiring and go forbid another round of furloughs.

I want to be optimistic, but with fuel prices climbing, airline ticket sales are gonna drop, and we may see another slow down in hiring and go forbid another round of furloughs.

...you do realize energy prices are a result of geopolitical fear trading and the US dollar's weakness relative to other currencies, and not any actual supply & demand fundamentals...right?

Gasoline prices are as high or higher than they were with oil pushing $150/bbl in 2008, but Jet-A prices (while still high) are not yet pushing 2008's highs.

It sucks no doubt...but like everything, this too shall pass.

...you do realize energy prices are a result of geopolitical fear trading and the US dollar's weakness relative to other currencies, and not any actual supply & demand fundamentals...right?

Gasoline prices are as high or higher than they were with oil pushing $150/bbl in 2008, but Jet-A prices (while still high) are not yet pushing 2008's highs.

It sucks no doubt...but like everything, this too shall pass.
I agree, don't forget the speculators that are manipulating the price as well. However, just because fuel is going up doesn't mean that baby boomers aren't going to retire. Seats will still need to be filled and as the economy comes back people will be able to spend a little extra on tickets to compensate for higher fuel prices (I hope anyway).

I agree. All of the elements are in place for a hiring spree; i.e. low student starts over the last ten years, pilots who have left the industry after two recessions, the aging baby-boomer population, etc.


Military pool drying up, too. Although there will be a grunch of mil guys/gals getting out soon once hiring does ramp up, overall the mil pilot population is much smaller than in the past, and won't provide the pool of applicants it once did.

Military pool drying up, too. Although there will be a grunch of mil guys/gals getting out soon once hiring does ramp up, overall the mil pilot population is much smaller than in the past, and won't provide the pool of applicants it once did.
Great point!!