A grandiose crisis in aviation awaits the country with the most developed economy and air network – the USA. The main reason is “a tsunami of pilots due to the retirement of most of them.” This was announced in Congress by an industry group.
“The pilot shortage has caused a collapse in air travel,” Faye Malarkey Black, president and chief executive officer of the Regional Airline Association, told the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee. According to her, a “tsunami” threatens already in the next 15 years — more than half of the pilots will reach the mandatory retirement age of 65 during this time, and younger pilots cannot replace aging ones.
There is already an “acute and persistent pilot shortage” across the country: 42 states now have fewer flights than before the pandemic, 136 airports have lost at least a quarter of their staff, and airlines have reduced flights to 11 smaller airports. Also, more than 500 planes of regional airlines are idle without a sufficient number of pilots, and those that can fly are used 40% less than last year.
There is only one benefit for pilots here – the combination of limited capacity and high demand means that the numbers are well above pre-pandemic levels. This, however, becomes an additional problem for regional carriers — the lack of pilots is felt by such US “air monsters” as American, United (UAL) and Delta (DAL). As a result, they hire regional airline pilots, which creates an even bigger problem for regional airlines. In 2022, major airlines hired more than 13,000 pilots, almost all from smaller airlines, but not enough to meet demand.
“The cost of training a new pilot can be $80,000, which is a total of $200,000 combined with the cost of obtaining a bachelor’s degree,” added the head of the association. She added that while pilot training programs do not provide willing access to training credits, less than 8% of new pilots are under the age of 30 — many entering the cockpit as a “second career,” she added.
At the same time, Jason Ambrosi, president of the Airline Pilots Association, a subcommittee on aviation-related domestic transportation, added that airlines are currently understaffed due to a lack of adequate pay and quality living conditions for pilots, as well as management decisions. adopted during the pandemic. “The current labor market is complicated by pilots moving between airlines leaving airlines that offer less attractive careers for those that offer higher pay and quality of life,” he said. However, he rejected the idea of raising the retirement age for pilots by at least two years, saying that it would “cause a headache in airline programs.”