Originally Posted by
atpcliff
These are NEW pilots required. If all the regional pilots go to the majors, there still won't be enough pilots and planes for all the passengers who want to fly.
AND, the above figures are only for the US....foreign carriers have way higher pilot needs, and they will be recruiting more and more aggressively in the US, hence worsening the shortage in the US.
I think major airlines need to get off their butts:
1- They could finance loans to new pilots
2- They could hire pilots in high school and pay for their training, just like UAL did in the 1960s.
They need to do something, and fast. It doesn't seem like the pilot shortage is that bad right now, but it's just the tsunami wave retreating from the beach...pretty soon everyone will see how bad it is, and it will be getting progressively worse, probably monthly. I don't see the end of it...
They are not going to adjust. This is a main reasons profits are going up (not enough pilots to fly the number of people who want to fly). The result is that only those who pay more of a premium get to travel by air. The airlines are going to make a lot of money over the next 20 years with this built in (price fixing) supply shortage.
Unfortunately, they have a lot of reasons not to raise wages at regional levels and I believe a pilot shortage is one of them.