There is no typo there. If they paid better, people would be flocking to this career.

Comeflywithme,
That was an estimate of your career years 1 thru 20+; it could be better or worse, but it will probably be fairly similar.
Most people don't have any idea what they are getting into when they decide to become a professional pilot, and their parents usually know even less.
Get ready for a lot of hard work, and low pay for many years. Eventually you'll probably earn a good living and enjoy life, but you'll be 35 or 40 years old before that happens.

There is no long term pilot shortage at the major airlines. I have been told the exact same "retiring pilots" lie since I started flying in 1998...The EXACT SAME THING! I remember hearing the same line on my tour of Embry-Riddle in early 1999 and reading it in many flight training magazines. It's a marketing tactic to attract paying flight students...it's not true.

The only pilot shortage that has ever existed was at the much lower paying regional airline first officer level. 2007 was the first year this shortage happened since 9/11, and the shortage is already slowing. Most of the better regionals are now well staffed with pilots. There is absolutely no shortage whatsoever at the major airlines or any of the better paying jobs, and there probably never will be.

Good luck focusing on Southwest Airlines. I think 3/4 of the pilots out there are doing the exact same thing. Southwest, FedEX, and UPS seem to be the popular 3 these days. They pay the most, but they are also the hardest to get hired by.
Southwest hires about 10% of the people they interview. Just getting called for the interview usually requires you to buy a Boeing 737 type rating, getting a couple Southwest pilots to recommend you to the interview board, having 5000+ hours and 2 years of jet captain experience, and it could still take a couple years to get the interview call, so I wouldn't put all your eggs in one basket. FedEX and UPS are even harder, but you will probably be 35-40 years old before you even get an interview at those companies.

Just be ready to accept this and you will be fine. You're going to have good experiences and bad, probably lots of bad before the good ones start.

Here's a good example of an article talking about a looming pilot shortage due to retirements that dates back to 2001. 9/11 put a resounding stop to it that time and it still hasn't changed.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...11/ai_71842824

Also, since the age 65 rule was recently passed, that postpones any of the looming pilot retirements another 5 years. Don't believe everything you hear, especially if somebody's trying to sell you something.