Shortage of pilot candidates puts a drag on regional carriers
 

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/a...l-carriers.ece

Pretty detailed article covering a number of regionals (Envoy, Great Lakes, Silver, ExpressJet, Republic) and well worth reading.

There isn't really a shortage of pilots, there is a shortage of airlines willing to pay a fair wage for the skill base required to be a pilot a make a living. Raise those wages and 10s of thousands of people will line up for the job.

The change of rules are unlikely to be reversed (increased flight experience & reduced duty time) according to the article.

More pilot pay may help (attracting more people to become pilots), but that will take a while to work its way though.

Hard to see a solution(?).

You described the solution. More pay, business provided training time to get the hours needed (an investment in the employee) and a commitment to hire the employee into a commercial pilot position once the training is done. I imagine it could be done in 18 months from the first hour of flying to commercial rating.

It would appear from the article that the main causes are:

The fact that airlines are prepared to ground flights, rather than increase pay or subsidise training, would indicate that the cut off point has been reached where they can't afford to shell out anymore.

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Exactly. It's Economics 101.

Not at all.. many new hire pilots at these carriers make $26 per hr.. of block time.. not time at work.. on a 4 sector day, that maybe over 10hrs of work for a 4 hr block day in regional flying.. $10 an hr of real wages.

Would you invest another 30,000 $ in yourself after college/university to then get job paying $10 per hr?

The issue is the regional carriers aren't paying. Period.

This right here is a big reason I changed career directions early in college. I still enjoy flying for fun in small aircraft, and certainly would have loved to be a professional pilot but for me it wasn't worth the trade-off of living on near or at poverty level wages while working my way through the regional airlines. Mix that with a schedule that would have made family life difficult and I'm confident I made the right decision for me. I still do look longingly at the guys at the airport sporting stripes on their shoulders, though.

There is no pilot shortage. There are plenty of pilots. There is a shortage of professional aviators who opt to live in poverty and debt well into their 30s when they don't have to, but that is not the same thing.

My 20-year-old kid has 300+ hours in his logbook, is getting his MEI this summer, and dreams of a commercial aviation career. He also isn't stupid. He started out pursuing an aviation degree but the pay policies of the US regionals made him think twice. He's getting degrees in atmospheric sci / climatology and mathematics instead, lining up his ratings and CFI qualification in parallel, and keeping his options open. With my encouragement. An aviation degree, and nothing else, is a pretty stupid higher-ed investment given current employment cllmate.

A lot of guys in this situation do gravitate to ATC instead as you suggest. Some go overseas, where in some locations my kid could shortly be in the right seat of an A320 or similar, making $75k+, instead of having to grind out another 1000+ hours of CFI time to have an interview in the US for a CR2 or Q400 FO gig that pays about $18k a year.

Only market forces can and will correct this. The airlines are transferring more lift to co-branded regional affiliates but not allocating enough wage money to keep their networks running. UA's Smisek was paid $7.9m last year; the UA domestic network is balanced on the backs of regional pilots making 0.25% of Smisek's salary. These men and woman are not idiots. The rational thing is for them to take their skills elsewhere unless and until wages are more reflective of their value.

30k? the going rate is about 50k-75k from 0 time to commercial multi(250 hours). Now with the new rules you need a CFI and forced to flight instruct till you hit 1500 hours.

4 years of school.
1 year for flight ratings
2 years of flight instructing making peanuts.

Then you will have your shoot at a $25k airline job. After 3-4 years of making subpar wages you might get upgraded to captain making 60-80. Not a very good investment when you could invest that same amount of time becoming a DR or attorney. Or just 4 years of engineering. It comes down to the airlines compensating better at the lower ranks to attract more pilots into this industry. I got out of flying 9 years ago and never looked back. I have the itch everyday to go back, but I cant justify going back to those wages and being away from home 1/2 the month. Everyone of my pilot buddies say run from this industry and wouldn't wish this pain on anyone. Now my single buddies love it for obvious reasons.

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No one will hire him overseas with 300 hours into a airbus unless he/she hold residency for that country. Now if he has 500-1000 hours of bus time then a few contracts in Asia can be had. They will sponser you to get the correct visa . I repeat NO ONE will hire him into a bus with 300 hours of single engine time unless he has citizenship for that country. Don't drink the kool aid the flight school is telling you. All the student from overseas will go HOME and get those jobs but not Americans. Just like we wont hire nonresidence here in in the USA. If the school is telling you this information which many do its is just a selling pitch. It wont happen. Lion Air in Jakarta will hire him at a cost of 50k but thats the only one I know of and you are paying for the job. Paying for training with airlines is looked down on, and some airlines will discard your resume if you have that.

+1

I was very close to pulling the trigger on a career change but the numbers just didn't add up. I now fly a C-182 for fun (PPL/IA) and am very lucky to have a job where I also interact with a lot of Aero customers.

Yep. The very reason I abandoned my dreams of being a pilot at 20 and went into Law Enforcement. The opportunity to be PAID to get trained, then be making $100k in a few years; thank you very much.

Although I have never looked back, (9 years in) I have always longed to fly and also look at those stripes on the shoulders with envy.

Paid, or at minimum, subsidized training with contract for a minimum amount of service required is a must for these regionals.