Oldfreightdawg

Time Magazine: 1964

Some things never change...

The Pilot Shortage
Friday, Jun. 26, 1964 Article ToolsPrintEmailReprintsSphereAddThisRSS


When the commercial jets flew into service, they made the airline pilot a surplus commodity. Because the airlines could carry many more people much faster, they needed smaller fleets of planes and fewer men to fly them. The lines laid off hundreds of pilots, demoted countless others to lower ranks in the cockpit. Now the situation has made a full turn; for the first time in the annals of peacetime aviation, there is a serious pilot shortage.

TWA says it "desperately needs pilots," recently hired 190 of them, its first newcomers since 1957. To sell flying careers to young men, it sends teams of pilots on speaking tours around the country. Pan Am hopes to hire up to 275 pilots this year. Eastern has been recruiting at Air Force bases, recently added 400. TWA, Eastern and United also have been advertising in the help-wanted columns, and United is busy at its large flight-training school at Denver, intends to break in more than 1,000 men over the next two years.

The pay is high, and can become skyhigh. Pilots who handle the large jets begin at $6,000 to $6,720 the first year, then soar to some $35,000, plus many benefits, by the ninth year—for 85 airborne hours a month.

Why, then, the shortage? For one thing, the surge in travel has led airlines to greatly expand their fleets; last week TWA announced the largest equipment order in its history, 33 jets totaling $162 million. The airlines have usually picked up many pilots from the ranks of young officers who quit the Air Force after a few years; but with the switch to missiles, the military is training fewer pilots. Simultaneously, many of the pioneering pilots of the 1920s and 1930s are reaching the compulsory retirement age of 60. The Air Line Pilots Association figures that 1,400 older commercial pilots—10% of the nation's total—will get their wings clipped within the next decade. Says A.L.P.A.'s magazine: "Only a national emergency requiring the training of thousands will create a surplus."

Here's the link:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...898200,00.html

BTW: $35000 adjusted for 2007 $$$ is $235,000

Ottopilot

That's the key point for me.

bigfatdaddy

As a first year guy - I'd be happy with $35,000

NYCPilot

Shortage is really only at the regional level, not so much at at the majors.

Oldfreightdawg

Not Yet, and maybe not for a while. But the pipeline is much smaller than in years past. It's been a long dry spell, the longest since 1957-1964! But I firmly believe history repeats itself. Whether it will repeat itself in time to save the current generation of pilots remains to be seen. JMHO

FIT59

It will be nice if/when all of the airlines can get contracts that bring pay back to the levels they once were.

seaav8tor

Just one of AIRCONs many tricks is to endorse media feeds to perpetuate the illusion of pilot shortages (post deregulation). Doing so has created the surplus of pilots management has enjoyed for decades. Few pilots figure this out until they have spent all their money on flight training and spent 10 years or more in the industry. Some will never figure it out.

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"They will never know what hit them." http://www.aircon.org/what_is_aircon/index.htm

Oldfreightdawg

Oh yeah, I forgot about the conspiracy. Never-mind.

Pilotpip

Back then you were flying a Martin 404 on regional routes when you first got hired, so in a way you were a regional pilot.

Airborne

That is exactly the problem. I don't believe there is pilot shortage even at the regional level, just a shortage of pilots willing to work for low pay with no guarantee even to make it to the majors.