I can't see how this will accomplish anything to address the pilot supply issues unless DL ponies up. If DL (or whatever airline that pursues anything close to ab initio) doesn't pay, then this will have a negligibile effect. I don't see that many additional people being able to, much less willing to, go into med school levels of debt for this.

According to Mesabah, most of the captains are "stuck" which gets us down to let's say 1400. Assume a 75% acceptance rate and that's 1,050. That'd be under 6 years for all pilots on property. At 1000 pilots and 75% it'd be just over 4 years. It sounds like the 6 year movement still puts those pilots ahead of any of the pilots under this new program.

How do BA/AF/KLM/LH do it?

If we reduced defense spending to 1% of GDP and made them raise to 4%, we could have all the free pilots we wanted with the savings. :cool:

There is truth to this. For decades US carriers have benefited from outsized defense spending in the form of ready-trained pilots. With the advent of drones those days are coming to an (eventual) end.

I'll bet you'll see European-style ab initio here within 5 years. With some sort of 5-yr bond attached.

This isn’t mean to solve their hiring problem by itself. It is just one piece of the puzzle.

There was a VP at xjt who used to say ab initio was the future of US Airlines. He went to B6 and was one of the developers of JetBlue U. He’s now at Delta.

Flow negotiations started today, so that may delay it even further if there is captain movement.

No doubt the career will evolve, but why can't your kids evolve with it? First person to fly a single pilot commercial airline pilot will likely be formerly part of a 2-pilot crew...


They just gotta keep their eyes open to the world around them and adjust as necessary.

Coulda swore I read somewhere we were overstaffed and cutting back flying?