Originally Posted by
sailingfun
I seriously doubt Delta will ever see a lack of qualified applicants. Even Delta management during the boom years a few years past stated they were surprised that the number of tier 1 applications on file never really dropped as the pool replenished itself as fast as they could hire.
You mean the exact same applicants at every other competitive airline.
That pool (that everyone shares) can only withstand so many of the various depleting factors. Lower mil output, fewer regional pilots due to up-gauging, 6 figure college costs, 6 figure flight school costs, a depleted GA infrastructure always trying to fight off disastrous European style user fees etc, significant retirements still ahead, etc. Regionals have quietly gone from minimum wage and pay for training to 5 figure+ bonus schemes just to keep classes full. One AA regional is even offering 150K bonus packages according to APC.
In any case the degree requirement is extremely low hanging fruit ripe for the picking as fast as it takes to write a single memo. That instantly shaves off 100-200K+ off the cost of entry. Many airlines already don't require it. Even if its "preferred" most have it by default so it takes a while to see the shift. More pilots are getting hired without it. Possibly even at DL depending on top secret "vault letters" and all that.
Maybe by then flight schools will be charging a million bucks lol who knows.