Regional hiring should continue for a little while longer, however the good jobs will continue to be difficult to get.

Over the next 15 years the majors will need 1500 to 2000 pilots per year to replace retirements. Each year there are almost 10,000 new commercial pilots issued and over 2500 fixed wing military pilots trained.

It is possible to get on with the majors however the odds are slim and will continue to be so. A more likely destination is as a career regional pilot, fly overseas or to spend a career as a LCC pilot.

In any case pay industry wide is half of what it was 15 to 20 years ago and seems destined to halve again in the future. Work rules continue to decline in the shadow of slimming profit margins.

The proliferation of regional airlines means that there are fewer of the better jobs. Minimums at the regional level are going down while they continue to go up at better LCC and Major airlines. At any one time it is common for a major airline to have 10,000 to 20,000 qualified applications on file for less than 500 possible jobs per year.

UPS, I have read, has applications from over 1000 sitting RJ Captains with more than 1000 hours of part 121 PIC. In addition they also have military, LCC large jet captains, corporate jet captains and turbo-prop captains.

Regional jobs will be easy to get for a little while however the odds are that it will be most pilots first and last airline job. The pay and working conditions are far worse than in past generations however if you don't know what life was like for pilots in the past then perhaps you will not care.

My personal belief is that most regional pilots reach the left seat and acquire their 1000PIC only to come to the slow realisation that they are still a long way from a good job and quit to pursue new careers outside of aviation.

Most of the hiring at the regional level is from growth, a few go on the the majors and the rest from attrition of pilots who have given up. The skills and determination to make it to the left seat of a regional airliner are worth much more to the outside world.

SkyHigh