The new announcement regarding Republic flying 53 175's for AA along with Republic announcing they are "teaming up" with ALLATP's to give "conditional offers" to students who don't yet have an instrument rating may hopefully shed some light on the "pilot shortage." Or, you may call it "pilots not willing to work for peanuts anymore."

I'm in contact with a couple of people at flight schools and a DPE. All three say that in the past 2 to 4 years, the numbers of American students pursuing a Commercial and planning an airline or Part 91 career are WAY down. Like 75% down or more from 2008. Reasons? Too expensive now plus hard to get loans for that type of training. I guess banks realize that if you loan a guy 100k for training and his prospects are to make between 25k and 40k for 6 to 8 years, the chances of getting repaid without a default aren't great. Couple that with everyone now needing an ATP (read 1500 hours) to even work at a 121 carrier along with the new flight time duty time regs.

All that said, does anyone inside Republic know how their hiring is working out? This should tell us if the "pilot shortage" is here or not. If Republic can get 500 without a problem, then I guess it's status quo for the next 5 years. If they CAN'T get 500, then perhaps the "shortage" is here. If so, what does Republic plan to do?

Let's see, they've already cancelled their training contract for the EMB and Q400 AND are offering a 5k hiring bonus for that equipment. That says something. They've "teamed up" with ALLATP's for pilot supply and are going to make "conditional offers" to someone who may not even have even a private pilot certificate.

I say next up will be dropping the training contract on the 175's and bringing the 5k hiring bonus there as well. Then......maybe they'll have to think about actually paying their pilots something decent to compete with the few remaining applicants out there.

Let's hope that can't find the guys they need. It will be good for all of us.

So.......anyone inside Republic have any info????