High gas prices. Bad weather. Too many people traveling.
These are just a few of the causes of travel chaos this summer. However, a lack of pilots has been brewing for many years and has added to the industry’s stress.
“The problem with airlines is that when you have a shortage of ramp staff, ops agents, it just delays flight,” Captain Casey Murray, president, Southwest Airlines Pilots Association said. But if you don’t have pilots, flights are cancelled or delayed for hours while pilots are put in position to move the airplane.
Thousands of pilots retired early during the pandemic. There were also disruptions to pilot training programs that led to fewer people joining this industry.
According to Faye Malarkey Black (leader of the Regional Airline Association), this exacerbated an already existing problem. The pipeline of pilots was already too small before the virus struck.
Black stated, “This is something we’ve warned about for more than a decade and certain the pandemic made it worse. But I really want to stress that we have to get out of the idea that the pilot shortage is just after the pandemic.”
In order to combat the economic effects of the pandemic’s impact on the economy, the government provided $54 billion in payroll support and relief for airlines. The purpose of this support was to ensure that pilots and other employees would be available to travel when demand returns. Instead, airlines offered pilots and other workers incentives and early retirement packages to help them leave. This left them even less staff.
Captain Casey Murray stated that the pandemic provided a temporary reprieve from the shortage as people traveled less. This meant that those who still flew could meet the decreased demand. However, now that the demand is back, airlines are trying to hire more people.
They turned to regional airlines, which often act as entry points into the workforce.
Black stated, “That’s the natural order of career.” It’s been true for a long time, but the pandemic caused it to accelerate because of the early exits. This sudden confluence of retirements, which we witnessed approaching, happened years ahead of schedule.
Black stated that airlines filled their positions with regional pilots, and that fewer pilot certificates had been issued in the past two years. This meant that there were “fewer” pilots available to fill the positions.
Black stated that this has made it difficult for regional carriers to continue their service and team up with major airlines. This directly impacts the connectivity of small communities.
She said that Chattanooga is an example of a community that has lost more than a third its air service. They might have lost their direct flights to D.C., or to New York. It’s a meaningful measure of their connectivity, which was in one place before the pandemic. Now it is in another.
Black stated that part of the reason there was a shortage of pilots in recent years was the high cost of starting out in the field. Financial aid is not available to all, so pilot training can be expensive.
She said that you cannot expect a student loan to cover all of your pilot training costs. It falls short of what is actually required, so pilots who are interested in becoming pilots must make up the difference.
To help ease the shortage, some airlines have started training programs and even their own flight schools. These programs may not be enough to immediately solve the problem.
Murray stated that it takes between 60 and 90 days to interview, hire, and train a pilot. “All airlines must be proactive because everyone is competing for the same shrinking pool of pilots,” Murray said.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be approximately 14,500 pilot positions each year over the next decade. However, it is not clear how many pilots will be needed to fill these jobs.
In the last decade, the Federal Aviation Administration has issued just 6,500 pilot certificates per year on average. Due to the disruption of training programs, there were fewer applicants, which led to a slight drop in certificates issued in 2020 and 2021.
Pilots who are interested in becoming airline pilots must also log 1,500 hours. Once they have become pilots, they will be required to retire at 65.
It’s not temporary, just like the pandemic did not cause this pilot shortage. She said that it’s something that will only get worse if we don’t take action on multiple fronts.
She mentioned that some of these actions include lowering the financial barriers to aviation education so that more people, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds, can enter the workforce.
Black stated that policymakers had a role as well.
“There aren’t enough training institutions. The few that do exist are often oversubscribed. She said that there is not enough financial support available for pilots who wish to be pilots.
Black stated that policymakers need to support pilots in the early stages of their careers so they can access high-paying jobs and reap the rewards. They can also help keep communities connected.
