for some time yet we are reading here about the shortage of pilots in US for airlines, so i ask, what are the authorithies doing/thinking about to solve this problem? Any light in the end of the tunnel?

best wishes, Leonardo

The authorities created the problem with the 1500 hour rule; that simple.

Reducing the 1,500 hour rule, I should hope!!

By authorities I assume you mean the government. They solve very few problems relative to the ones they create. See above posts.

77H

Flighty wrote:

The authorities created the problem with the 1500 hour rule; that simple.

Ha! Yeah, right.

Because spending a decade decimating the piloting profession with pilots making below $20,000/yr and horrible schedules/working conditions didn't have anything to do with it?

For quite some time, even without the 1500 hour requirement, you had to have more than 1500 hours to get hired at an airline (including regional).... Airlines took advantage of the flood of pilots out there, desperate for a job, and completely destroyed the profession. Finally word got out that it wasn't worth it to become a pilot anymore. Too much effort and cost for too little reward. It just isn't sustainable putting tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a job where you qualify for food stamps.

And now the pilot supply is drying up because many individuals made wise choices and have chosen to go different paths with their lives.

LPSHobby wrote:

for some time yet we are reading here about the shortage of pilots in US for airlines, so i ask, what are the authorithies doing/thinking about to solve this problem? Any light in the end of the tunnel?

best wishes, Leonardo

Hopefully staying out of it at the point and letting the market correct itself.

Economics, i.e. the market will fix it.

UpNAWAy wrote:

Economics, i.e. the market will fix it.

are you being ironic?

The 'shortage' is only at the regional level, which shouldn't even exist in the first place. Delta has 16,000 applications on file, with a lower interview rate than Harvard.

Hopefully the regionals go kaputt and we return to normal service types (737's and A320's) not thousands of 50 and 70 seat RJ's, which is completely stupid and unsustainable.

There is not, and will not be, a pilot shortage at the best jobs, period. That’s the problem, not the ATP rule. As long as it’s a “winner take all” game, it will always be this. There will be pilots looking at $300,000 incomes at legacies and take $20,000 jobs in the hope they get the call.

Go look at APC forums, there’s HS kids looking for direction, 55 year early retirees trying to learn how to become an airline pilot in 3 years, and everything in between. Loads of guys leaving corporates, others trying to come back in aviation after a decade away. Salaries are up, way up in some areas. Corporates are really escalating pay, as are 135 operators and regionals.

Actually, RJs served and continue to serve a good purpose, giving the legacies (regionals are pretty much a legacy deal) with access to customers in small markets that couldn’t be economically served by a DC-9/737 flown at mainline costs. RJs kept a lot of those lines in business. Now, they are becoming an uneconomic problem.

GF

Varsity1 wrote:

The 'shortage' is only at the regional level, which shouldn't even exist in the first place. Delta has 16,000 applications on file, with a lower interview rate than Harvard.

Hopefully the regionals go kaputt and we return to normal service types (737's and A320's) not thousands of 50 and 70 seat RJ's, which is completely stupid and unsustainable.

Regional airlines play an important role in any market as large and spread out as the US. Without them, a good swath of the country would be left with severely reduced or no airline service at all.

Now that’s not to say that the industry isn’t due for a structural reckoning. Clearly, the status quo is unsustainable and there will undoubtedly be an additional degree of consolidation in this space similar to what happened with the mainline carriers. But even in a more rational world, there will still be a place for 70 and even 50-seaters. Less hub-to-hub shuttles and slot squatting routes perhaps, but a greater emphasis on improving regional connectivity to smaller markets.

As a regional driver I can say that there is not a shortage of qualified pilots, there is a shortage of airlines who are willing to pay us for our skill set. Many people left the profession during the lost decade, and are now combing back due to the higher wages, but more needs to be done. I am worth more than $40/hr. Pay us and we will show up.

LPSHobby wrote:

UpNAWAy wrote:

Economics, i.e. the market will fix it.

are you being ironic?

Not at all. The regionals that are paying decent money have no problem attracting talent. Regionals like Skywest that suddenly find themselves on both the lower end of pay and a declining performance standard are going to put themselves in a bad spot.

If they continue paying second year regional FOs $60k/yr and second year major pilots six figures, the industry will correct itself in a hurry.

The title is very misleading. Why the authorities? Rather.....What is the industry going to do about it?

Time to pay up or risk having planes grounded.

flydude380 wrote:

Reducing the 1,500 hour rule, I should hope!!

yup, why would you want experience? We should probably do away with medical school for doctors too. That would lower the cost of medical care.

mikejepp wrote:

Flighty wrote:

The authorities created the problem with the 1500 hour rule; that simple.

Ha! Yeah, right.

Because spending a decade decimating the piloting profession with pilots making below $20,000/yr and horrible schedules/working conditions didn't have anything to do with it?

For quite some time, even without the 1500 hour requirement, you had to have more than 1500 hours to get hired at an airline (including regional).... Airlines took advantage of the flood of pilots out there, desperate for a job, and completely destroyed the profession. Finally word got out that it wasn't worth it to become a pilot anymore. Too much effort and cost for too little reward. It just isn't sustainable putting tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a job where you qualify for food stamps.

And now the pilot supply is drying up because many individuals made wise choices and have chosen to go different paths with their lives.

And the military used to put of a ton of pilots and you could rent a 172 for 12 dollars an hour.

777PHX wrote:

If they continue paying second year regional FOs $60k/yr and second year major pilots six figures, the industry will correct itself in a hurry.

As soon as small communities loose service, there will be a political will to allow more pilots into the service.

We've gone from unsustainable in one direction to the other. Either a compromise is reached, or the year regional service crashes the rules will dramatically shift to enabling a pilot surge.

Lightsaber

kiowa wrote:

flydude380 wrote:

Reducing the 1,500 hour rule, I should hope!!

yup, why would you want experience? We should probably do away with medical school for doctors too. That would lower the cost of medical care.

I sense some sarcasm... Let's just say, look at Europe, Asia ( such as SQ) etc... where hiring pilots straight out of flight school is common.

It is just not the 1,500 hour rule causing issues. It is also the pay, terms and conditions!

airtran737 wrote:

As a regional driver I can say that there is not a shortage of qualified pilots, there is a shortage of airlines who are willing to pay us for our skill set. Many people left the profession during the lost decade, and are now combing back due to the higher wages, but more needs to be done. I am worth more than $40/hr. Pay us and we will show up.

99% of the time, that's the problem. "There's a shortage of qualified people ..." means "we aren't willing to pay enough to entice people to get qualified and work here". If you want good people, you have to pay them.

there's more to it though there are many good posts here. I heard the chief pilot speak at a retiree's lunch last spring and one reason he noted was that being an airline pilot isn't cool anymore. This is caused by the overall problem that air travel isn't fun and one can list all the issues from the time you walk in the terminal. The military is trying to find a solution to their pilots leaving and very lucrative offers are being made to keep them.

as an aside I find it amusing that just before I retired there was all the fury and anger with the old guys staying until 65. there were many of heated arguments, and I'm being nice here, in the cockpit about not letting the junior guys progress up the ladder. The shortage started not long after.

CosmicCruiser wrote:

there's more to it though there are many good posts here. I heard the chief pilot speak at a retiree's lunch last spring and one reason he noted was that being an airline pilot isn't cool anymore. This is caused by the overall problem that air travel isn't fun and one can list all the issues from the time you walk in the terminal. The military is trying to find a solution to their pilots leaving and very lucrative offers are being made to keep them.

as an aside I find it amusing that just before I retired there was all the fury and anger with the old guys staying until 65. there were many of heated arguments, and I'm being nice here, in the cockpit about not letting the junior guys progress up the ladder. The shortage started not long after.

The profession certainly lost a lot of glamour when air travel stopped being a status symbol and started becoming a plain old commodity.

I think the military situation is going to take a while to correct itself however. I know several military guys that transitioned to the friendly skies because they were sick of being stuck on a boat for seven months of every two years or deployed to some god forsaken hellhole for half a year. It's quality of life for a lot of these guys, not the money. The problem sort of feeds into itself as the military struggles to retain pilots. Guys are getting deployed more, working harder, burning out quicker, etc. The military has a whole is suffering some serious fatigue from essentially being in conflict continuously since 2001. Guys are burning out, aircraft are aging much quicker than planned because increased of utilization, maintenance is struggling to keep overworked aircraft in the air, etc.

that's possible what you say but all I've heard are guys ready to make some money.

Most major airlines in the US want you
to have an ATP to even be considered


You have to have 1500 hours for an ATP
anyway and this is a minimum standard


The rule should not be changed, a decent
experience level is vital at this level