There will be a shortage of qualified pilots at the regional level for a few reasons. There are fewer kids coming out of flight schools because the return on the educational investment is absolutely laughable. Most smart parents and almost all banks have realized this already.

Again, there will never exist a shortage of qualifed applicants for well paying jobs. I have yet to hear how this aging population will result in a lawyer shortage. Only aviation and her low wages keeps the dreams alive by the promise of something better for your many many sacrafices.

AMEN!

Pay more and you"ll fill your class!

No doubt pay will attract qualified applicants. I know there are hundreds of flight instructors, chief pilots, guys in management at flight schools all who will never leave their job because they don't want to take a pay cut to to go to a regional, have a worse schedule, and not see their family every might.

Now, will more pay put more students into the system. Perhaps, but I know these type of students all too well. They aren't there because they have a passion for it. They are much more difficult to train and will try to kill you around every corner. Good luck getting these guys to 1500 hours when that time comes too.

Just think about it, how many doctors do you think successfully pass med school that are only in it for the money. I would venture to say not many. Even with a modest pay increase, you will be hard pressed to motivate the average individual into this career.

lets not forget that hiring pilots is not just about having the time, the degree, and knowing how to fly airplanes. Some companies want good employees with good attitudes that are going to get along with others and do their job without complaining that is something that not everyone has. Ive seen a lot of bad attitudes and maybe that adds to the shortage. I think that airlines have plenty of resumes to search thru, but most of those resumes are old and people have moved on to bigger better things by now, some may have just applied without meeting the reqs, and then of the ones that meet the requirements and look good on paper what is the percentage of people that make it to an interview and either have an off day and ball it up, or have a terrible attitude and dont get hired?

Just a thought...

Now that the SLI is out, just imagine how hard it will be to fill classes now!

who would come here knowing there's no upgrade in sight and you could be on crappy fo pay for a while

And which company as of today, have quick upgrade in sight?

driver

I was just talking to a friend of mine about this topic. He sat in a XJT check airman ground school a few weeks ago and had a management guy (JN for those who know) say they can't find people, very few applicants and how their plans of hiring 96 a quarter is about to be changed. He was talking about parking aircraftnext year and "when the majors hire and get you 8, E and G guys outta here, we are screwed."

I have a friend finishing class at XJT now. Some of the tales he had of the poor performances put on by some of his classmates indicated that they're scraping the bottom of the barrel to get butts in seats at class.

It seems there's going to be enough attrition at the majors, coupled with hardly anyone filling the lower ranks, coupled with rest rules that require more of us to staff an airline that within the next 5-8 years, pilots will be the single most valuable commodity in the airline industry.

I just read on another forum that beginning in December of next year, United will have a pilot retire every 18 hours. That is a pretty amazing statistic especially when you add in all of the other carriers that will have similar numbers based on age 65 retirements. Couple this with improved rest requirements, and there could be a huge hiring boom in the near future.