United Buys Flight Academy

[bafanguy]

Bold move. Looks like it'll be tied to the previously-announced Aviate Program. It will likely follow the license-CFI-regional-mainline track we've seen before:

"They will eventually join the carrier’s Aviate program after getting their private-pilot certification at around 40 hours of flight time, then build up their hours teaching and flying for smaller operators."

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/05/united-airlines-buys-pilot-academy-to-speed-up-hiring-of-10000-pilots.html

https://worldairlinenews.com/2020/02/05/united-airlines-to-become-the-only-major-u-s-carrier-to-own-and-operate-a-flight-training-academy/

[Climb150]

Just feeding the regionals. United have thousands of resumes from adequately qualified people to pick from.

If someone started flight training tomorrow it would be approximately 4 years before they had 1000 hours TPIC and be eligible for a spot at United (if the person already has a bachelors degree). If they dont you can ad another 3 years at least.

So if you then factor in the odd checkride fail, bad mark on your personnel file, too many sick calls or just losing interest in general etc, you can cut the number of graduates who make it from start to United by 70% at least.

Not really a quick fix all.

[bafanguy]

Just feeding the regionals. United have thousands of resumes from adequately qualified people to pick from.


Not really a quick fix all.

150,

Yep, beyond feeding their regionals I don't see much need for this thing either.

[CaptainProp]

So the students need 1500 (?) hours to fly 121 ops right? Does that not apply both to regionals and mainline United then?

CP

[bafanguy]

So the students need 1500 (?) hours to fly 121 ops right? Does that not apply both to regionals and mainline United then?

CP


CaptP,

The regionals are also Part 121 so the UAL students would need 1500 hours for a regional spot...same as mainline (unless the school gets some kind of carve out for r-ATP min flight times).

r-ATP mins usually come to graduates of academic institutions rather than commercial flight training organizations:

https://www.faa.gov/pilots/training/atp/media/institutional_authority_list.pdf