The looming demographic shortage purely due to the airlines allowing an age 'bulge' in their pilots, is one of the reasons for the pressure for reduced or remote pilots - with autonomous aircraft. There literally may be no other way of keeping some air carriers running.

Automated aircraft?
With the pied piper at Tesla promising driverless cars, last year, this year and apparently us all living on Mars by 2020, one needs look a little beyond the marketing

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...-mountain-view

Perhaps before pilots scare themselves, the normal market clearing mechanism will likely become more obvious; improvements in terms and conditions will induce more supply.

There may be a shortage of (people willing to go 100k into debt for entry level jobs)

If an experienced Airbus Captain/FO , wants to join , say Ryanair, they pay for the rating to work there.
If a similar experienced Boeing Captain/FO wants to join easyjet, they pay for their rating to work there.

If an experienced Airline Captain joins a legacy carrier, they start at the bottom.

Companies now want pilots ready trained, on a plate. So who's actually doing the training?
Ultimately, its the individuals themselves, at some point.

Therefore, there's no shortage of experienced crew, simply its not appealing to now change employer with the constraints of the modern
day recruitment processes and associated financial terms placed on accepting employment.

To Ensure its Planes have Pilots, Airbus is opening its own flight academy.

This job has simply become not appealing. Who the fiuck wants to spend 90 hours a month in flying tube for half of the money that once was made spending on it half . The life style money career path , beside legacy carrier and not all of them,, just sucks.

In the decades after WWII, you got trained by the military and moved to the airlines when your time was up. As previously noted, the military has cut way back on flying and training pilots. Last Summer I bumped into a squadron full of C-17 pilots hiking Logan Pass - all in their 20s with about 200 hours. Bottom line the military can turn out highly capable complex jet pilots in under 200 hours.

Then there was the time when civilian flight training was affordable for the wages on offer to younger folk. Your first job would get you out of your parents' basement and pay for flying. You could then instruct until the next step on the ladder opened up. Much less of that now.

The shortage is of people ready and able to plunk down $100,000+ on a lottery ticket for a long internship in a crap job on starvation wages that may or may not lead to a half decent job.
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That was not universally the case. In Europe it was airlines training their cadets largely inhouse right from the street in abinitio programs. Which lead eventually to the Lufthansa-developed MPL program that has been ICAO adopted quite a few years ago. The military was at best an additional source, but not the main one. However, both, the airlines and the military used a similar initial selection and training style, assuring a certain quality of trainees. Those selections still exist, however, the cost of the training has now been transferred from the airlines to the applicants.

Hi
I find the facts interesting , something that is hard to come by these days.
The FAA" Estimated Active Airmen Certificates Held" table is very good.
From what gather there was 270 000 ATP and Commercial pilots in 2009.
As low as 254 000 in 2016.
And 262 000 as of December 2018.
I am just using the Fixed wing ATP and Commercial column only.
I would imagine from this there less pilots available for more jobs!
Crisis , not yet.
What I would love to know is the age groups of those ATPs
Regards
Cpt B

Table 13 from this link for each year ?

https://www.faa.gov/data_research/av...en_statistics/

As someone with 30 + years working in commercial aviation I can safely say I have never seen so much movement and so many opportunities for low time new entrants. However IMO I have also never seen such low levels of skill in new hires flying serious iron. Historically new pilots either worked their way up through the GA or 3rd level commuter school of hard knocks or came out of a gold plated airline run cadet program with a high entry bar and a very high level of training quality ( essentially the model that allows the Military to safely and effectively put a 300 hr pilot in a fighter jet).

Now in Europe there is essentially no GA and everyone comes out of an airline puppy mill where ability to pay is the main entry bar.

In Canada there is a real GA sector but there is such a demand that a MEIFR CPL, a pulse, and 500 hrs will force you to choose among multiple employment offers on Q400's and Regional jets.

It is only in the US that the ATPL requirements for virtually all airline jobs forces new pilots to make their bones in the real world before they get on with an airline. I think this process serves to weed out most of the unmotivated and the poseurs with the ones left being the the guys and gals who truly have the flying bug. I don't think it is coincidence that the US continues to leads the world in flight safety incident/accident metrics.

BafanGuy
 

Thanks
So , In 2002 CPL was average age 45,5 and ATPs 46,6 years.
In 2018 per 31 December FAA CPL active pilots was 46,3 so stable.
The ATPs on the other hand is average 51 years old, ie a massive retirement in progress!!!
Keep in mind that in 2009 there was 125 619 CPL and 144 600 ATP total 270 219 Fixed Wing pilots.
In 2018 there was only 262 015 total BUT 162 145 ATP and only 99 880 CPL, ergo the picture is worse then I suspected.

Need to digest this and would love to have the same in Europe.
( PS You can subtract a 54 year old ATP holder from that list, Yours truly.)
Just out of curiosity ,what is the contracted retirement age in the Majors and the Commuters, anyone?
Again BG : Thanks. The facts are out there, indeed!
Regards
Cpt B

While I agree in general with your thoughts, and could not put most of it better even if I tried, one thing came to mind:

If easyJet in EU could be the overseas equivalent of Southwest: best paying LoCo and the most thoughtful of working conditions (okay okay, one eyed leading...)
- why the staggering difference in landing incidents?

Especially as what you write is really true and the most expensive jet-direct programme rooted from an EZY TRE back in the days.

Exactly my point.

As far as I know, it's the regulatory max age at FAR Part 121 operations. Some carriers will have a provision for early retirement with the details varying I'd imagine.

When I retired under a defined-benefit plan with a monthly annuity payout, the penalty was 3% per year early. I left 4 years ahead of the regulatory max age and lost 12% of what the full payout would've been. Then they terminated the pension plan and it all became moot.

I have no idea what airlines are doing today with a defined-contribution retirement plan.

In either case, retirement is based on regulatory max age.

BG
Indeed, and in 2009 Congress decided 60 was to young and 65 was the magic number in FAA Land.
The reason I am asking is that it changed a bit earlier in Europe and KLM for example had 57 as the Contracted retirement age.
But as You say it is all in changing nowadays so my hobby statistics are , shall we say a bit up in the air!
But to conclude for today from what I can see from the FAA stats I can only conclude this.
1 January 2019 there is 162 145 ATPs . Most are Commanders with an average age of 51.
1 January 2019 there is 99 880 CPLs No Commanders with an average age of 46,6.
A grand total of 262 015 airline pilots.
Assuming quite a number of the FOs in the Majors and the Commuters are holding an ATP that means that the average Cpt is well over 51!

Indeed Boeing stated in 2016 that in 2026, 42% of ALL pilots flying for the Majors would have to retire for the 65 year limit.
A pilot crisis, potentially, ABSOLUTELY. Its in the numbers. Simple!
How to avoid?
Crank up the numbers!
On the Pay Check!
Simple!

Happy Days
Cpt B

I've read the Boeing and Airbus public stats that Asia will need some obscene number of pilots over the coming years.

I'm pretty sure Boeing and Airbus just pull those numbers out their ass.

There are thousands of US pilots commuting to work in foreign lands. I was one of them and one time. I know most or all of them would be quick to take a job in the US if the pay was right.