FAA Data Shows Airline-Ready U.S. Pilot Numbers Tumbling
Certification changes have in part created far-reaching effects.
Recent data indicates that pilot certification changes have had far-reaching effects on pilot certification levels for commercial and ATP pilots.
Following the FAA's 2013 change in certification requirements for becoming an ATP-rated pilot, a requirement for hiring by Part 121 carriers, FAA data shows the number of ATP practical tests being administered in the United States is declining, following two years of declining numbers of applicants for the ATP knowledge exam. ATP numbers peaked in 2016 at over 8,000 certificate issuances. If the current monthly trend continues this year, that number is expected to reach only about 3,300.
Additionally, the overall number of pilots earning commercial multi-engine certificates has remained flat while the percentage of those tests being completed by U.S. pilots has declined significantly. In 2007, fully two-thirds of commercial multi-engine certificates went to U.S. citizens. By the end of last year, U.S. citizens earned slightly less than half the multi-engine commercial certificates issued in this country.
While the number of non-U.S. pilots training in flight schools here is increasing, most non-U.S. pilot graduates eventually depart for cockpit careers in other parts of the world, making them unavailable to fill any U.S. commercial pilot positions. These students provide valuable flight time to U.S. instructors employed at flight schools, experience that will eventually lead them to qualify for their own ATP certificate and feed the pilot demands here in the states, but with fewer U.S. commercial qualified pilots, the overall number available for airline employment will likely decline.
These numbers indicate that flight departments not already experiencing a shortage of pilots are going to begin seeing one in the near future.
FAA Data Shows Airline-Ready U.S. Pilot Numbers Tumbling | Flying Magazine
ps I am Australian, and the last pilot I employed to fly for the company in the US I work for was a Kiwi. Why? No Americans who have the qualifications for this job are available ( I need single pilot IFR Multi engine turbine pilots who have at least 4000 hours and practically everyone with those qualifications has been taken by the airline/cargo carriers already). I have been working with these problems of the pilot shortage (yes, it is real and yes, it is due to the FAA regulatory change in 2013) for years and I see it going on for at least 8 years even if the 1500 hour/ATP rule was cancelled today because it will take that long for a prospective newbie to be able to do the job. I forecast that within a few years, the accents you hear on the radios of US Regional and Mainline carriers will be foreign. If you have trouble understanding a Korean pilot speaking English now, don't worry, you will get used to it.