Originally Posted by benairguitar23

Originally Posted by SkyHigh
Each year the US produces between 8,500 and 10,000 commercial pilots. 30,000 over the next 15 years is nothing. 2000 hires a year will not even make a dent in the pilot supply.
Skyhigh

No the USA USED to produce that many! The FAA website is deceiving, and from a talk with a current FAA examiner I believe in the last QUARTER of last lear only 300 Commercial licenses were handed out.......300! That's a long way from 10,000! And when I was instructing before getting hired I had students coming up to me left and right either saying "I won't be back next term because I can't find a loan" or "I'm leaving the aviation industry altogether because there is no money in it" or "because my parents want me to get into a better career field". Like it or not the shortage IS going to happen. We have been understaffed for about 2 years now with reserve guys crediting OVER 100 hours a month consistantly. And with friends at other airlines saying the same thing you don't have to be a rocket scientist to recognize what's going on. But what you also have to realize is that not just the airlines are hiring, there are coporate gigs too so not all pilots want to go to the airlines. And last but not least, I have had several friends of mine leave the airlines here and go to Emirates, Qatar, Cathay Pacific etc. I look at 2 years for it to occur and then all heck will break loose.