Pilot shortage article
 

As airlines rush to add regional jets, one important question remains: Who will fly them?
Liz Fedor, Star Tribune

Vance Hopkins used to fly jets out of the Twin Cities for Pinnacle Airlines. He walked away from that job earlier this year to become a truck driver.

"I wasn't getting enough time at home," said the 45-year-old Hopkins man, who typically spent just eight or nine days a month with his wife and three children when he was a pilot.



"They were the ones that were making the big sacrifices," Hopkins said, adding that he now returns home every night after working as a short-haul truck driver in Northern California.

The job of a commercial airline pilot, once considered exciting and lucrative, has undergone a negative makeover complete! with lesser pay, longer hours and plenty of time spent on the road. The industry changes are especially severe for pilots who work for regional airlines, where the pay for first officers sometimes doesn't top that of a fast-food shift manager.

Many airline industry insiders say the United States is now struggling with a pilot shortage because airlines have created a harsher lifestyle for pilots. Some pilots are leaving the profession to pursue other careers, and some students intrigued by aviation are choosing other occupations and bypassing pilot training.

The Federal Aviation Administration has projected that the number of passengers on U.S. commercial airlines will increase from 698 million in 2000 to 878 million in 2011 -- a 26 percent jump.

Meanwhile, the number of pilots holding airline transport certificates -- the license needed at major airlines -- is expected to remain virtually flat. In 2000, 141,598 people held that license, and the F! AA expects a slight climb to 142,489 in 2011. The number of pi! lots wit h commercial licenses -- required at regional airlines -- is expected to decline by about 7,000.

For travelers, pilot shortages mean more flight cancellations. Pinnacle Airlines, for example, which operates regional flights for Northwest Airlines, disclosed in May that it expects to pay a $1.1 million penalty to Northwest because it didn't have enough pilots to fly the full schedule earlier this year.

The shortage also means there's a good chance that a newly hired co-pilot on your regional flight has less flying experience than newly hired pilots of just a year or two ago.

"You can teach somebody to fly relatively quickly. You cannot teach judgment quickly," said Tom Wychor, chairman of the Mesaba Airlines pilots union. "Judgment takes time and experience to learn."

Brian Addis, who operated the Wings flight school in St. Paul for three decades, said a pilot's career is "not the way it used to be." People training to become commercial pil! ots now need to know that they "will be gone more and work harder for less money."

Many have already gotten that message and decided a pilot's license isn't worth the time and expense.

For many years, Addis said his school typically had an enrollment of 150. But he closed shop in March after the number dropped to 10.

John Prater, president of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) International, said the pilot shortage has its roots in 9/11, because major airlines slashed thousands of pilot jobs following the drop in passenger demand that resulted from the terrorist attacks. Many of the remaining pilots saw their pay reduced as the airlines struggled financially. Several carriers entered bankruptcy. Some airlines, including United, terminated pension plans.

Now, there aren't enough new pilots "entering into the pipeline because the [labor] contracts were broken in bankruptcy court," said Mesaba's Wychor. He argued that bankruptcy judges g! ave airline executives "carte blanche" to extract excessive co! ncession s. In the Northwest bankruptcy case, pilots took a 23.9 percent pay cut in 2006, which was on top of a 15 percent cut in late 2004.

Gearing up to hire

After hiring 4,779 pilots in 2000, the nation's major carriers hired just 549 in 2002.

The tables since have turned and big network carriers and regional airlines are seeking to hire thousands of pilots. Both Northwest and United airlines have recalled the last of their furloughed pilots and are hiring pilots for the first time since 2001.

Northwest said last week that it intends to hire about 300 pilots over the next 12 months; on the first day it accepted applications on its website, it received 250.

But Northwest is drawing pilots from the regionals at the same time that it is hoping to rely on the regionals more than ever to handle big parts of its flight schedule. Northwest is expanding regional flying by an annual average of 16.9 percent between now and 2010.

N! orthwest has allocated three dozen new 76-seat Canadair Regional Jets (CRJs) to Mesaba as well as 16 smaller CRJs that seat 50 passengers. That increased flying means that Mesaba expects to hire 695 pilots. The airline said Thursday that it has hired 285 pilots so far, and has received 1,400 applications.

Compass, a new subsidiary created while Northwest was in bankruptcy, intends to hire 350 pilots to fly 36 new Embraer jets that seat 76 passengers. Compass has hired 80 pilots and started to take delivery of the new planes.

Pinnacle, Northwest's third regional partner, employs about 1,250 pilots and has seen 168 resign this year. Phil Reed, Pinnacle's vice president of marketing, said that Pinnacle has made 254 new hires this year and kept a "large pool of well-trained, experienced pilots."

But Scott Erickson, chairman of the Pinnacle pilots union, said many first officers at Pinnacle have made lateral moves and taken jobs at other regional airli! nes. A beginning first officer at Pinnacle earns between $24,0! 00 and $ 25,000 total for flying more than 900 hours a year. (The FAA maximum for flying is 1,000 hours a year.)

Pinnacle pilots, represented by ALPA, have been in negotiations since July 2004.

"The terms and pay rates of our 1999 contract have languished behind the industry," Erickson said. "Naturally, substandard pay, benefits and work rules have been a major impediment to pilot recruiting and pilot retention in such a tight hiring market."

Minimums being minimized

Kit Darby, who recently retired from flying for United, has run a business for several years that helps pilots get jobs.

Through his company, Atlanta-based Air Inc., he distributes detailed information to pilots about hiring opportunities and job qualifications.

Many regional carriers used to require that new hires have 1,000 hours of total flight time, but Darby said those "minimums" have been dropping rapidly.

"When [airlines] are changing their mini! mums to get more people, then there is at least a shortage of what they previously were looking for," Darby said.

Mesaba lists 600 total hours of flying as "minimum preferred hours" for new hire pilots, but Darby said a Mesaba representative told him that exceptions would be made to that floor based on the chief pilot's approval.

Pinnacle cites 1,000 hours of flying time as a "preferred minimum," but since June Pinnacle management has been offering to pay employees a $1,000 "referral bonus" for each pilot they find who has 600 to 1,000 hours of experience.

Kent Lovelace, chairman of the Aviation Department at the University of North Dakota, said he believes the United States is experiencing a pilot shortage. He said that at one time pilots needed 1,500 total flying hours to get hired at regional carriers. Now, regional carriers are traveling to Grand Forks to hire UND graduates who normally would spend a few years building up their flight time as! instructors.

"We've had three airlines here in the l! ast week hiring," Lovelace said, including Mesaba.

Darby said some regionals are hiring people with only 250 hours of flight time, even though many regionals required 1,000 hours a year ago.

Mesaba said Thursday that its 600 "minimum preferred hours" of flight time is "consistent with regional carrier standards." Mesaba cited eight others, ranging from 250 hours at Trans State Airlines to 1,000 hours at Republic. Mesaba said that some pilots it hired in the past few months had more than 1,300 hours.

Log jam at the bottom

Mesaba's Wychor said it used to take about a decade for pilots to get on sound financial footing. They would earn very little pay as a first officer at a regional carrier, get promoted to a higher-paying regional captain, and then take another dip in pay after getting hired as a first officer for a big airline, such as Northwest.

After reaching the rank of captain at a major airline, their pay could soar compared t! o beginning pilots. As their seniority levels allowed them to fly larger aircraft, their pay would climb. For example, before a veteran 747-400 captain took two pay cuts at Northwest, that pilot was making up to $281,000. Now, that same pilot makes about $182,000 a year.

In recent years, movement to major carriers was stymied because the big airlines reduced their workforces and regional pilots had to stay put.

Sean Forster got tired of waiting for the logjam to break. "I sat in the top 10 of the Minneapolis [base] first officer seniority list for close to three years, because nobody was moving," Forster said.

Now 38, Forster left Mesaba in mid-2004 because he didn't think he would have enough good flying years to earn a decent retirement. He became a regional sales manager for a company that sells sporting goods.

"The most money I made at Mesaba any year as a first officer was $35,000," the Minneapolis resident said. "I remember my wife! and I went in to see an accountant and he laughed at us."

Pr ater, a Continental pilot who was elected ALPA president last year, is focused on negotiating financial and work-rule improvements for pilot groups across the United States. "It must be an attractive profession," he said, or there will be a long-term pilot shortage.

Prater said it's not a viable strategy to simply make the current supply of pilots work harder. "Pushing the pilots who are there to fly even more hours per day or more hours per month has directly led to a chronic fatigue situation," he said, forcing flight cancellations.

Some airlines may be beginning to take notice.

At UND, Lovelace said one airline inquired about sponsoring scholarships for pilots.

"I wanted to get off the floor," Lovelace said. "That's the first time any airline has talked about helping to support new, potential employees. His reply was, 'It's cheaper to do that than cancel flights.' "


Liz Fedor • 612-673-7709 • [email protected]

Yeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwww CAL here I come..........:rolleyes:

Nuts?
 

I have been writing about these very topics for years now and people here claim that I am extreme and off my rocker.


There is a better life.

SkyHigh

Cal
 

You and perhaps 20,000 other hopefulls.

Skyhigh

Thats a bit extreme

How?
 

Besides you there are at least 20,000 regional pilots plus military and corporate pilots (and probably much more than that) who all have the same idea.

Right now there is a 24 year old kid who has upgraded in the CRJ at SKW who will be logging 121 jet PIC. He is your competition.


SkyHigh

yeah your right, Im going to give my two weeks.................:rolleyes:

Point
 

My point is that there is a massive group of pilots who focus on the few good companines that are hiring. A plan "B" is a good idea.

No matter how young you are there is always a next generation rising up. If it is true that there are pilots under 25 who are now upgrading in an RJ then even your generation could be passed by.

SkyHigh

SkyHigh, you do have some valid points. My problem with you is when you start belittling pilots for choosing their profession. Everyone’s perception of scarifies are different, some think that spending 1 day away from home is an unimaginable scarifies. My point is, continue to show newbie pilots your side but don't belittle them.

BTW, now one knows if they've chosen the right road until they've retired and looked back. After all; in the end, regardless of what industry you’re apart of, it's all just:

"Dumb Luck!"

Just enjoy the road where ever it may take you.

Im 26 I am pretty sure there are not 20,000 23 yr ol CAs at the regional level that will cause me and "me generation" to miss out and the industry "pass us by". Even if it takes me 10 years to get out of XJT I will only be 36....................I understand that at 36 making 50k a year is terrible, but thats if it takes me that long, and at this rate I doubt it will....................

By then, it is too late.

You have to look at your career proactively and make adjustments along the way. I was a RJ Captain looking at a six figure income and weekends off. I thought I was set for life. Then my airline was acquired but not merged. One of our firm orders is pictured your avitar. First came the threats, then the displacements, as our airplanes were transferred to your non union carrier.
Enjoy my seat for less pay than I was earning. There is more to it than "dumb luck." There are Managers, Unions, and replacement pilots who think they got "lucky" to have your job. Until you have done the drive along I-20 to Atlanta with your belongings in a trailer and a training date for displacement, you do not understand.

I've moved on to another airline which I think will be a good thing. But, I wish things had worked out differently. Before SkyWest bought us I would have recommended a career in aviation to friends and helped a few guys get started. After SkyWest, GoJets and the like, I have told friends to stay away from this profession.

36
 

By the time you are 36 if you haven't been a 121 jet captain for most of your career you could be viewed as bile by most airline hiring boards. Just because you might be flying a jet you shouldn't feel like you are building towards a resume that will be worth squat to an airline in the future.

I am not trying to be mean but if you left a 121 carrier for XJT it could spell doom for your airline hopes especially if the regionals start handing out RJ's to kids.

Pilot hiring is fickle. I watched as my resume became worthless due to the proliferation of turboprops. I predict that unless you are in your 20's and an RJ captain then you will be at a huge competitive disadvantage.

SkyHigh

well most of the guys I know going over to CAL and SWA are in their early 30's...............

Dumb Luck
 

Spoken like a true Peter Pan.

I often belittle newbie pilots because they love to use false logic and self delusional concepts to give themselves permission to do stupid things. They con their spouses, parents and self so that they can satisfy a selfish childish impulse.

Deeply embedded in a denial bliss they will shirk their husbandry and fatherly obligations in trade for getting to play pilot all day while ignoring the obvious.

They say things like:

You gotta do what you love.

Follow your heart.

And of course,

Just enjoy the road.

Those might be nice things to have printed on motivational calanders but they do little to help fill the bank account. Single people can do whatever they want so long as they do not burden anyone else.

SkyHigh

Sky High,

That is not how it really works. At all the airlines I have applied to (Delta, FedEx, AirTran & ASA) the process was roughly the same. The first step was exceeding the minimum qualifications. The second was rounding up your contacts and finding the right person to push your paperwork forward to the right manager. The third was preparation and practice for the interview that made your competence and willingness to serve stand out.

Age is much less of an issue that it once was. Airlines understand that young pilots will someday be senior captains earning maximum longevity pay for a long time. At ASA, we were told that management actually wanted pilots to leave after about 5 years so they could avoid paying the big money at the upper end of our longevity. There are a handful $140,000 a year RJ pilots walking around who still have 25 years left.

You are correct to point out the risks of betting on a future job to these guys. They could get "lucky" like the Delta, NorthWest, United, American, MidWay and TWA guys got lucky at the end of the last cycle. A furlough is a heck of a way to flush 7 years.

I think many pilots are staying out of the business because they look around and see that half of the flying is being done by contract carriers with little job security. Flying is such an investment that it is difficult to rationalize the sacrifice necessary to get the brass ring.

Bucking Bar

30's
 

Sure they are in their 30's however it seems obvious that it would be best by far to be a 30 something part 121 RJ captain then a part 135 jet guy. Don't ya think?

The cream of the pilot pool is and will continue to be RJ captains and military superstars. Both prove that they can take huge amounts of abuse and are willing and able to be a cog in the machine. A 121 jet captain has already proved that they can handle all the aspects of a 121 career. All that a learjet type can prove is that you can fly an ILS at 147 knots.

A big obstacle you will face in an interview will be "why did you leave an airline to fly for XJT'? Unless of course you are from Independence and can claim that you were laid off.

I am not trying to be mean here. My career was made irrelevant due to market changes that I didn't foresee. My aim is merely to get you to consider these things.

Skyhigh

Theres some confusion here, XJT is Expressjet Airlines, D.B.A as Continental Express, and Delta Connection, so I will be a "30 something RJ Capatain" from a 121 airline:confused:

Point
 

My point is that in the cometitiveness of the hiring pool if all things are equil a guy who has 121 jet PIC will previal over most else in the civilian world. Though there isn't a hiring proference towards younger pilots it sure looks better to be a 28 year old RJ captain than a 48 year old one.

Everyone knows that the younger guy will complain less and will be able to flirt with the HR girls. Besides all that what grown up would want to start over at middle age at a legacy airline that most likely will furlough them a few years later anyway?

I believe that in the near future these wonder kids will be upgrading in part 121 jets and most everything else will be deemed worthless. Minimums at the majors will move towards 2000 part 121 Jet PIC.

I watched as single pilot IFR MEL piston time became worthless. Soon MEL turbine will be disregarded as well.

SkyHigh

Yes
 

Thanks for clearing that up. I thought that XJT was Executive Jet.

Sorry,

SkyHigh

ok so ill be in my twenties and an RJ Captain, I am getting involved with the union, and participate in a lot of local volunteer stuff in my community and I have a lot of friends at major 121 airlines...................so I think Im actually doing ok

yeah, no problem.:D

Good For you
 

You are well on your way. I wish I had such good fortune when I started. I had to spend most of my 20's living in the Alaskan bush flying Cessnas. It stunk.

As always, the best of luck

SkyHigh

thanks, sad thing is I would enjoy that lifestyle the most, me, a simple airplane and no one to bother me ;)

Life is full of experiences and Alaska bush flying I always though would be an exceptional one.

That there is some funny chit. Let me tell you...121 flying is the easiest, least challenging flying I have ever done. It is a joke really. I flew those Lears and worked 100% harder doing it. I am now at a 121 carrier without any 121 PIC time. SWA didnt seem to mind me flying those little Lears around. They have hired a lot of FlexJet pilots and continue to do so. Get off your 121 high horse, because it is not all that challenging.

There's a great deal of old turboprop guys still on major hiring boards. Why would they cut off the guys that have truly taken the abuse that you speak of (turboprop life is harder than jet life, you know that), fly harder, handfly, fly shorter legs, etc., etc...

I won't believe there's a pilot shortage until it trickles upward to the majors.

Urrgh, I guess me, I am middle aged and starting over.

IFR MEL Piston time is not worthless. In fact, that is more than enough to get you in a job that results in flying a 75,000lb jet international. The regionals are begging for IFR / MEL pilots.

I think what is "worthless" is the way our profession has allowed the outsouring of almost 50% of network flying. SkyWest, or ASA, are many times the operations that airlines like Southern, NorthEast, Val-u-Jet, Piedmont, Allegheny, or any of those national carriers that were thought of as Majors were back in the day.

As an MD88 pilot, I feel comfortable in saying a CRJ900 is a whole lot more aircraft than a DC-9 was.

Not picking on you - you write interesting things that are worthy of a reply.

The majors have outsourced the majority of any growth in narrow body flying. NorthWest is shrinking their DC-9 and Airbis fleet in favor of CRJ's at Compass, Pinnacle and Mesaba.

Those major jobs are nearly twice as rare as they once were. Between the loss of 3 seat jets and RJ's Delta's list is 6,900 down from almost twice that number. With age 65 looming (which shut the door at FedEx even before it happened) there is not going to be a "shortage" for the good jobs any time soon. Now is probably as good as it gets.

Pilots need to focus on improving the lot of the professionals at the non-brand regional carriers who are the defacto narrow body majors these days.

I know plenty of 36 year olds that make about the same or less than 50k year. Not everyone has six figure salaries at least not were I live. Most of my family lives in north New Jersey. My uncle their only makes about 60k per year and thats probably all he will ever make.

Hi!

The Pilot Shortage has already trickled up to the majors. SWA cut their PIC requirement by 300 hours. DAL didn't get as many Mil guys as they wanted. UAL (and, I think, NWA) aren't getting anywhere as many qualified applicants as they planned on.

The big Asian carriers are sucking wind bad. They used to require a type rating and a lot of time to hire a street captain. My buddy has no widebody, no heavy, and no oceanic experience, and he was told he met the qualifications for a -777 street captain.

When UPS, USAir, FedEx, SWA and AA are all hiring again, it will be unbelievable. Good for us, a NIGHTMARE if you're a recruiter.

cliff
YIP

PS-The FAA says that by 2011 the domestic pax #s will be up by 26%.
The number of ATP pilots will be flat.
The number of commercial pilots will decline.

How is THIS going to work???

Alaska
 

During my time in Alaska I flew all the fun tradtional bush planes and had a blast. Every day was a new adventure and I was rewarded with good pay and more challenging situations thrown at me than I felt ready to handle.

The down side was that I saw a lot of my friends get killed and the net result of my 7 years up there was ZERO in regards to my airline dreams. At the time however it was the only oportunity I had.

In the end it was a total waste in regards to my career dreams and I wish I had never gone.

Skyhigh

Good for You
 

I too am a past 135 small jet guy. I realise how difficult it is to do that job. My only point is that the airlines tend to hire their own most often and I believe that if someone left a part 121 job for Flexjet there would be some strong questions to answer.

SkyHigh

HR Screening
 

Over the years HR at the majors is forced to increase minimums to avoid the wave of daily applications. Back when I started UAL only wanted 250 hours and a commercial licence to apply. Piston MEL was king. All a guy needed was 1000 Piston PIC and record of having sat in a Lear once or twice and you were a hot prospect.

Once they start handing out RJ's like candy to 24 year old captains the trend will have to move up again. There are captains on every hiring board who have ZERO PIC in anything before going to the majors because that was the norm 20 years ago. It still doesn't stop them from turning down highly qualified people when they have a waiting room full of RJ captains and military superstars.

Skyhigh

I hope you're right, but as long as the U.S. majors have more applications then people they need to hire, there won't be a shortage in the U.S.

First tier carriers will never have a problem filling seats. They may want better guys (Heck, Delta may even have to look at civilan guys) , but they will always have somebody. It's the soft underbelly of aviation that will be lacking.

I find it funny at times that folks who are newer to this game don't fully recognize the cyclical nature of aviation. It's fest or famine. The "hot" company will furlough or fold. Just remember all those who had it made at Eastern, Pam Am, TWA, and Braniff. Fed Ex and UPS used to be the stepping stones to a better gig, now guys would kill for a job there.