Originally Posted by
HelloEveryone
What's considered the minimum/competitive hours... these days?
I was under the impression that Delta only hired military, so if you were civilian you were pretty much out of luck.
If they hire civilian at all in 2026... is 5k, 10k hours competitive? 15+ or maybe more?
I was also under the impression they liked their new-hires to spend a few years at the wholly-owned (Endeavor) before onboarding them, or at least at a "competitor" mainline (United or American) before a conditional offer. Is that still true?
Thanks in advance.
Military just tends to have less TT due to single seat/fighter time. Here is the last class, which is pretty representative to how it's been for the past few years:
April 14, 2026 Class Demographics:
8 Military Pilots: 17%
4 USAF, 1 USN, 2 USMC, and 1 German Air Force
39 Civilian Pilots: 83%
7 Envoy, 5 SkyWest, 1 GoJet, 1 Mesa, 1 Piedmont, 1 PSA, 1 Republic, 1 Alaska, 1 American, 1 FedEx, 1 Southwest, 1 UPS, 1 Air Canada, 1 Allegiant, 1 Atlas, 7 Frontier, 1 Corporate, 5 Spirit, 1 Kalitta
Lowest Time: 2,000 hours (USAF)
Highest Time: 14,700 hours (Frontier Airlines)
Average Time: 4,352 hours
Ages:
Oldest is 52 years
Youngest is 25 years
Average age is 27 years