Zero to hero and PFT programs would be a much more difficult sell in today’s world. The young people will have all the information from going online and realize what a horrible deal it is.

I don’t think it’s as hard as you think, that’s why it worked in the late 90s and early 00s. When the job market is crap and the only way to the right seat is to pay $5-10k for a type, people will pay it to get a job. Sad but it was the way it was. When you are young the allure of flying a shiny jet to get those Instagram likes is a pretty easy sell. I was even looking at Comair at the time, they were king of the PFTs.

i spent almost 10 years as a firefighter/paramedic in Texas. First year pay for me in 2004 was $26,000

wheb I finished up in 2013 i was up to around 50k

not great. city of 100,000

Might I ask exactly what PFT programs stand for? I’ve heard 0 to hero with ATP, but never PFT.

Pay For Time. Generally seen as another way to drag down the profession. Also connected to a series of regional crashes in the 2000s.

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/f...m-academy.html

https://www.flyingmag.com/safety/tra...s-alternative/

It was downright eerie how many GIA alumni were involved in various regional accidents in that era.

Agreed. One almost can’t help making a correlation.

Id say a full decade!

So regardless of what happens comes October now might be a good time to start training?

PFT generally stood for “Pay for Training” which was widespread rather than “Pay for Time” which was less so.

Pay for training required the job applicant to pay the airline for their initial training. After the checkride you started getting paid, all $17/hour or so

pay for time was buying 250 or 500 or 1000 hours of right seat time. There were ads in the back of flying magazine, you can get everything from beech 99 to 737. In this situation you were paying to be a required crewmember.