Airlines Face Pilot Shortage – New England Tech Has A Solution
Excerpts from an article by 聽on the current shortage of airline pilots and the need for more flight training to fill the skills gap and immediate hire demand:
“聽can be torturous enough as it is鈥攚ith delays, cancellations, lost luggage and expensive tickets鈥攂ut experts warn that another problem looms on the horizon, threatening to further complicate the commercial airline experience: a pilot shortage. According to the聽Wall Street Journal, U.S. airlines are on track to run out of pilots in the near future and are facing the most serious scarcity of trained aviators since the 1960s.
The paper reports that more than half of American pilots are over age 50, and there is a dearth of qualified candidates to fill the cockpits that will be left empty when they retire. The mandatory retirement age for pilots is 65 years old (extended from 60聽in 2007), meaning that thousands are expected to leave their careers with no one to replace them, the聽Journal听苍辞迟别蝉.”
“According to the聽Journal, JetBlue Airways Corp.鈥檚 chief executive, Dave Barger, said in October that the airline industry is 鈥渇acing an exodus of talent in the next few years鈥� and may 鈥渨ake up one day鈥� to find that there is no one to 鈥渙perate or maintain鈥� the planes.”
“Although estimates vary, Darby鈥檚 firm calculates that U.S. airlines collectively employ close to 96,000 pilots, but that they will need to hire at least 65,000 more in the next eight years.”
“American Airlines, which recently announced it will add more international routes next year, said it intends to hire 2,500 pilots over the next five years鈥攁lthough even that may not be enough to maintain its ranks at current levels. The carrier currently employs 8,000 active pilots鈥攄own from the 14,000 it had in 2001 after it bought TWA, according to the聽Associated Press.”
“While passengers may still complain of jam-packed cabins, the cockpits now appear decidedly less crowded.”
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