No question. But anyone who is surprised by these developments has had their head buried deep in the sand for at least 20 years. We’ve been talking about this moment in the industry since before our legislature decided to kick the can down the road w/ age 65. It’s a simple supply & demand problem. No airline is going to hold out for 8,000 hour pilots when 1,500 hour applicants is all they have.

Would I prefer my FOs come up through thousands upon thousands of hours of instruction, single pilot Part 135 in challenging weather w/ no automation, and jet PIC at the regionals (or a decade plus of military training/operation) like my generation did? You bet I would. But those pilots simply don’t exist in the quantity we need. Again, we’ve been looking forward to & failing to address this problem for decades.

Is there anything we can do at this point? Not directly, no. But each of us is going to have to step up our game in terms of mentorship, vigilance, and adherence to safety. We are not babysitters, but the demands and stresses of this job are going to fundamentally change- that is a fact. Which means we should- through our union- be demanding better compensation, less fatiguing schedules while at work, and more time off in between. I believe the experience we have makes our generation equal to this challenge, but we need those things to ensure burn out does not occur & safety is not compromised as a result. Our company needs to be convinced that such an investment is well worth the benefit of those bent airframes on the daily news saying something other than UAL on them.

And one more thing- the incentive to upgrade needs to be increased. While I’m all for improving RSV, solving the right seat issue by catering only to 1-2 year FOs misses the mark. The left seat should be enticing enough to go senior again; making the most experienced of us the primary mentors to this new crop of pilots while they spend more time cutting their teeth in the right.