I agree that they are extremely rare and I have no problem with a more diverse pilot group. It isn't the number that people are pointing out because as someone else already posted there is hard data to prove it. It is about their experience level upon being hired compared to the average qualifications at that time. Anyone that meets the minimums is fair game and legacies have hired all types of people well below the average qualifications but I think the averages would show a helping hand being offered to minority pilots. OBAP and WAI are great groups that do offer very helpful resources to get hired and every legacy airline is at their career fair without fail.

What sort of proof do you need?

Do you think the companies will provide the data if asked? Since they won't guys are just left with looking around, and listening, when they hear the backgrounds of new hires.

At WAI a company specifically said they hired 12% women OTS in the previous year. That's hard to attribute to randomness when that hiring pool was reported to be 6%.

In the previous hiring at AA the first 996 new hires had at least 15.7% women. The first 200 was exactly 20%. The company insisted they weren't target hiring. Asked a PhD candidate in mathematics what the odds were of that happening - "that's impossible." Come on, give me a number. It was either 1.0(-21) or 1.0(-23). Sorry, brain fade after 15 years so I forget if it was 0.0000000000000000000001 or 0.000000000000000000000001.

When the numbers don't match the odds/percentages it's not 'random'.

Proof? I guess something backing up your statement minorities are hired with less time or experience. Other than "people say."

Only thing I've seen from Delta is that 7% of new hires last year were women. I've never sees any breakdown of male vs female experience. The Air Force seems to have had (observational, I don't have hard numbers) 15-20% female makeup of UPT classes for the last long time. Meaning that women make up a larger portion of Air Force pilot ranks than Delta new hire. Which doesn't necessarily mean anything, other than there is no shortage of qualified women leaving the Air Force.

I don't actually understand the point of your numbers....not being argumentative. What were the boundary conditions of the problem you posed to the PhD dude? I'm not actually sure what you asked him. The fact that it was exactly 20%, or the fact that 20% is high?

At any rate, walking around campus at Delta re-affirms what a few others said above, this is primarily a white male profession. I'm not assigning a value judgement to that fact, but the assertion that you have to be a woman or minority to get hired is patently false.

Someone mentioned age--youngest in my class was a 29 year old RJ guy, oldest was a 54 year old military and RJ. Irrelevant fact, both were white guys.

What proof are you looking for?
Asking for proof when you know no airline will disclose that is pointless. You are ignoring the fact that 4% of pilots are female and yet legacies are hiring 15% and up of females just proves that they are indeed targeting them in the pool. They are trying to build diversity into their pilot groups and right or wrong it is happening. I just want to play the game and get hired.

I don't have any empirical data but based on my company's new hire class photos I'd enecdotally observe that they are 90+% white males 30-45.

I think he's asking for proof of your seemingly random percentages while treating them as fact across the board, meanwhile wildly ASSUMING that anyone that is a non-white male that gets hired isn't just as experienced as their counterparts.

The chief pilot at the time said "I'm not doing what United did. We're not target hiring." Looking at class pictures and it was immediately obvious that he was lying. So a called a PhD in mathematics candidate and gave *her* the actual hiring statistics of male/female, class by class, for the first 996 new hires. Why use women as the fact checker? Because it's pretty obvious when looking at pictures, or names, who's a women. Names aren't 100% so the actual female new hire count might have been slightly higher than 156/996.

Overall female pilot population pool was estimated to be 5% back then. Now it's 6%.

Not trying to pick on female pilots. Family and friends in that group. Just pointing out B.S. statements that the facts don't support.

It's overwhelming a white male profession. Article said 86%. No one is disputing that.

I personally don't like/believe in affirmative action. I also believe that there has been and always will be a push to hire minorities. Just look at the late 80s/early 90s (ie. 500 hour wonders at United). We just can't pin point it. Having said that, the best pilots I flew with were women and the worst were also women. There was one female (F-16 guard) in my UPT class and she ended up washing out. She failed 2 out of 3 check rides in tweets and could not land the 38. It didn't help that she was cocky and a beeeeahtch.
Where I work, every minority pilot whom I've flown with have been well above average. Maybe it's just dumb luck or maybe not; to me, it really doesn't matter. I've flown with 20,000 hour guys who can't fly and chew gum at the same time and I've flown with 4,000 hour "minority" pilots who can fly the $hit out of the jet.
Airlines try and hire from a wide range/variety of pilots, and that includes hours/experience levels. As I always say, if the minimums are not good enough why have them? A ton of hours don't always equate being a good stick and it certainly doesn't equate to having good personal/CRM traits.
Besides, why would you choose this career field if you are so smart? Of course, the ex-mil guys don't have to answer this question :-) Who invests $150,000+ to land a job that pays $20,000? Never mind.... there are more than enough who would/does. This in itself is the problem.

Why do you folks get so upset about alleged minority hiring issues? At the end of the day, you're real frustration lies in the fact that YOU have not been hired. Everytime you see/hear someone you deem less than deserving get hired, it ****es you off. That's not a conspiracy against white males, it's just immaturity on your part.

I have been updating apps at 7 airlines for two years now and I also am a casualty of the post-9/11 era, but I'm not pointing fingers at others. Instead, I am trying to do more networking and looking for ways to boost my app scores. I humbly suggest others do the same vs blaming unfair hiring practices.