Pilot Shortage. Fact or fiction?
 

For some years now Ive heard people talk about pilot shortage. I have a pretty good work myself as a commercial pilot so I have not been seeking a new career. Still I wonder if there is now or forseen a pilot shortage? Any evidence?

Emirates will be making another flying visit to the USA (Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, New York) from 4th until 12th December to conduct information sessions for pilot candidates and to review experience, with a view of booking people directly in for a selection program in Dubai.

We will also be reviewing experience and booking people in for selection programs on the day, providing they meet our criteria.

You might also want to pass on that we will now accept and review applications from candidates for First Officer positions who do not yet meet our published minimum hours requirements.

Candidates who are up to 500 hours below total and/or multi-engine jet hours are invited to submit their applications and may be offered the opportunity to attend a selection programme in Dubai. Successful candidates must, however, meet published minimum hours requirements prior to joining.

Direct Entry Captain requirements remain unchanged

Any help you can give us would be greatly appreciated!

Donna Rawson
Recruitment Manager - Flight Operations
Human Resources

At least one US commuter airline is considering pilots with 250 total time and 50 multi-engine. I think that is evidence of a shortage of experienced pilots.

Our last recruitment resulted in about 15 people being offered jobs and only 6 accepted the offer. Apparently the ones that turned it down had other offers...........Mix of candidates from 300 hr newbies to direct entry captains. I dont think there is a shortage of pilots, there is however, a shortage of good pilots.

shortage
 

There is a shortage in airlines with relatively poor terms and conditions.
No matter whether big or small or airline or corporate. Fact is that most operators are hiring.

There is going to be a shortage, no doubt about that at all.

Large numbers of pilots coming up for retirement,
Large numbers of pilots will be needed for the VLJ expansion. Even if it is only a quarter of what analysts expect VLJs will absorb a lot of pilots,
Vast numbers needed for far East expansion, no way China, for instance, can train half the pilots they are going to need.

I don't know if being a pilot will ever get back to quite the status it used to have but things should definitely get better over the next ten years (subject no major world altering disaster or invention that changes the desire to travel.)

There's a 'Glut' of Line Pilot's - believe me:ugh:

Alot of the talk of shortages, Is merely a marketing trick for Flying Tuition.

There may not be a shortage but there is a demand for experienced type rated pilots. Trouble is most of the jobs are in airlines you wouldn't work for or too far away.

It was said during a previous 'shortage' in the eighties I think. Pilots would contact an airline only to be told that they already had 500 (or some figure) CVs in their files and they were number 501 to be considered.

Trouble was, all the airlines had the same 500 CVs. Now that was a shortage. I remember Aer Lingus took PPLs they were so desperate:eek:

(Obviously they sent them to Oxford or whatever)

Direct Entry Captain
 

I thought EK shut down their Direct Entry Captain a long time ago. have they changed their position on this. I was about to board the flight to Dubai when they changed. I still work for UA. Please advise.

Jamie

DEC's Joining every week.

Not everyone passes the regulatory checks though.

The voice of doom now, from one who is not in the airline world but has worked in the commercial world for 30 years.

The recession which is now bursting upon the western world will change this problem. Western airlines will be wanting to lose people and the middle eastern and (some) oriental ones, will wish to gain people.

Sorry if that sounds too gloomy, it's from having observed two recessions at first hand that leads me to that point of view.

Originally posted by Corsair:No there isn't!
There is a lack of understanding in airliners' managements that you don't need type rated pilots, just experienced pilots. What is the cost of conversion? Two weeks CBT, 10 sim sessions. One aircraft on the ground for 1 day costs more!

There is still the firm opinion around that only type rated pilots are able to do a good job. All these job adds are full of this cr*p. In an ideal world, the pilot shortage would start from the bottom (small airlines with unexperienced FO), because all available experienced pilots would get hired by bigger, better paying airlines, upgrading FOs and train them on bigger aircraft. In our pilot world, the opposite is true: The shortage starts at the top. That's why biggies can still ask for any salary they want. Again, in the ideal world of free trade and travel, the shortage would start in the flying schools, equalizing the costs and salaries throughout the market.

It starts slowly to topple, when some airlines accept non-rated pilots. But they do it merely out of shear desperation. Not because they have understood the system. In doubt, they still hire the less qualified, but rated pilot. Makes me wonder...

Dani

PAXBOY I hope you are wrong but I fear you are right. :sad:

At the present time the only shortage is of experienced type-rated pilots.. and the only people struggling are those who offer pathetically low salaries along with generally poor working conditions.. the only people willing to work for them are newly qualified and desperate for hours... they don't hang around long once the hours have piled up and it's interesting to note the the usual supects are the ones always advertising for crew... a couple of operators up here in the north east are constantly advertising for people to act as P1 on a pax carrying part 121 ops, earning around 30k pa... what sort of pilots are they getting ?

Exactly what they pay for.

The pilot shortage is fiction.

The experienced pilot shortage is fact.

Until the younger/newer pilots stop prostituting themselves, there will always be a surplus of pilots.

The question remains: How do you tell a new pilot not to take a low paying, experience building job?

Once we have resolved that dilemma, we will be able to command the proper pay for all levels of pilots.

If you want to see how that can be achieved, try getting a part in a Broadway show without an equity card.

I wouldn't underestimate the impact of the Age 60 change as well.

Pilots entering the bottom of the pipeline can expect to be frozen where they are for 3-5 years when the law changes. That's bound to turn some away.

And for those coming after the change - they just get to start five years later. Same number of jobs, just older pilots filling them, at all levels .

It took me until age 33 before I made a wage big enough for my wife to stay home with our brood. If the rule had changed earlier it would have been 38......

DaniBut - if they get it wrong, and the person does not qualify? The accountants will always go for the easy option of someone that is already qualified. I have seen this in I.T. for 20 years. People who are very experienced and can easily pick up new bits of kit - are not hired above the inexperienced candidate who knows the kit. Thus, the workforce becomes narrower. Expect the same in your world.

Jurassic JetYou can't! Once again, I have seen this in many other fields where people will work for little or nothing - particularly in areas like film and theatre - just to gain experience. Human nature ensures that each individual will place their needs in front of any greater good for people that they will never meet and cannot know.

One way to help out the shortage of experienced pilots is to dump the 60 yr rule that exists here in the US.. totally ludicrous... the generation of 60 yr olds today is a wprld apart from the previous generation... I've been flying alongside superbly talented, very fit, bright guys with a wealth of experience numbering 15000+ hrs on heavy jets with a career going back to military fast jets and suddenly on the scrap heap because of a date on their birth certificate...

HUCK: Peronally I don't care where it leaves you ( or me ) on the upgrade ladder.. I would prefer to concentrate on safety and keep these grossly under-experienced jokers away from the sharp end until they've proven themselves on single crew night-freight for a couple of winters. We now have companies advertising for P2s with as little as 250 hrs... about time the press took this up...

Speaking of the age 60 rule, any guesses as to when the law will change in the US? Will it be in effect immeidately after it passes by congress? Or will there be a delay? Any insight?