Originally Posted by
SkyHigh
When I hired on at Horizon Air in the late 1990's I was the lowest time guy in my class with 4000 hours. Skywest and others had a similar line up of new hires. A few were getting on at some of the lessor companies with 1500 hours but it wasn't all that common. The industry was still soaking up pilots who were laid off years prior. Nearly a third of my class was made up of high time pilots who had been laid off from other carriers.
I expect that for a long while that is what the hiring situation will be like at the regionals unless human resources departments decide to avoid hiring experienced pilots. Plenty of newly separated military pilots had to take positions at the regionals to wait for the majors to start hiring again.
SkyHigh
Heyas Sky,
My new hire class at Henson was very similar. At 3000 hours with 1400 turbine, I was the low time guy in the class. 4 year upgrades. Lot's of military guys / lifers there, too, because of the relatively good base structure (TPA, ORF, JAX were very mil heavy).
The regionals hiring kids at extremely low time was an anomaly, the same way as the majors hiring the same way back in the 60s...it was a once-in-a-40-year-cycle thing.
GA is a shadow of itself from the 60s, and the fleet count and number of pilots is way down. Changes in taxes and insurance, as well and the way FBOs have distanced themselves from flight training/rentals has decimated aircraft availability, and thus opportunities for time building. Cost of flying is up way out of proportion to inflation or CoL. Why should Joe Public learn to fly when there is MS Flight Sim?
Air21 has proven the naysayers right, and even bellweather companies are under pressure. The destruction of manufacturing demand has decimated light cargo, and even the heavy haulers like UPS and FedEx are worried that people have figured out that ship by ground works almost as good and costs a lot less.
The piston twin fleet, bulked up by the building binge in the 60s and 70s, has been rode hard and put away wet. When the cargo runners pull back, it's likely that you will see those aircraft removed from service and not replaced, because there ARE no replacements. Some may find their way into private ownership, but my bet is that many will wind up being parted out.
Despite this, GOOD CFIs were slight demand, because the hiring brief boomlet "ate its young", and produced relatively small numbers of CFIs. But the collapse of the economy has squelched even that small opportunity.
2-3 years down the road, the civilian route will be VERY difficult, probably more so than at any other time in history. The GA pilot and aircraft count will continue to decline, with decreasing opportunty at every turn as "timebuilding" aircraft are retired.
The majors, and even the large cargo outfits are/will be in re-trenchment, and probably won't hire for years. The regionals will be filled with an increasing number of frustrated pilots unwilling to give up QoL to risk furlough at a major, and any hiring/career progression will slow to a crawl.
In a way, the civilian career will resemble that of the 50s/70s. You got your CFI because you enjoyed it, not to time build. If you want to fly for a major/international carrier, you will need to be military. Civilian guys/gals who are committed to flying for an airline will wind up at the regionals as a career after 10 years of instructing, and their career progression will mimic those at the "local service" carriers of the 60s (the North Centrals, Air Wests, Alleghenys etc)...IE very slow.
I hate to be a downer, but it's been a perfect storm.
Nu