I think alot of a shortage of pilot talk is bs. Look at how many people the airlines wont hire. I know several people that have washed out of training and most regionals wont interview them and those that will havent hired them. Eagle told a friend of mine that they will never consider him for employment if he didnt complete a 121 program for any reason. from what i have seen most of the regionals seem to have blanket policies not hire any washouts. There has got to be hundreds of these guys out there and it doesnt mean they are bad pilots.

Besides that though it only takes a year or less to be trained for the airlines, requires no significant education and the money is pretty easy to get for training. Where i instruct we have had to turn students away there are so many. i have signed off 9 initial cfis in the last 2 months, so im bringing down any temporary shortage myself.

I think the guy that posted before got it right: money talks. The regionals paying less then starbucks indicates they are finding pleanty of suckers. Oh and if they arent finding quite enough, well that is like walmart complaining about a lack of illegal immigrants to take advantage of.

p.s sorry about the sucker comment