What is the average age seen In a new hire class for a regional carrier? How about a major carrier?
Jeff,
A few years ago I read the average age was around 34 at the Regionals but I haven’t seen anything recently? (I’m pretty sure if you spoke to the airline recruiters they could give you that info). As someone who instructed at both a Regional and a Major I can tell you at the Regionals I saw newhires as young as 21 and as old as 60. Going to Majors that gap gets smaller. Since the Majors hire pilots with time and experience they’re not quite as young (usually mid to upper 20’s) and due to the mandatory age 65 retirement you see far less in their 50s.
Adam
34!? That’s great news, I won’t feel as old as I though walking through their door as a new hire at 36 if I can keep to my current timeline. 
Why is it that I read in a few places that even though 1500 hours is minimum to get hired by a regional airlines , most carriers avg to get hire are about 2000- 2500 hours?
Jeff,
Could be for a number of different reasons. You’d have to ask each individual company. Could be competition. Could be that they also want turbine time and typically pilots that have turbine time have over 1500. Could be for insurance purposes.
Is there a specific company you’re referring to? Happy to look at the job requirements to provide a better answer for you.
Tory
Jeff,
1,500 hours is the minimum, but airlines can still be competitive. Flight time is in many ways the same as work experience. A company might say two years is the minimum work experience, but they prefer more. Same with flight time.
Chris
Chris, if you go to ATP could you theoretically finish the atp mins in 1 year if you have your PPL already? 6 months of training IFR and beyond then 6 months of Instructing?
Jeff,
Depends on how much time you already have under you Private Pilot license… but I would doubt it is doable in most cases. I rarely hear of people going from 250TT to 1500TT in 1 year. It usually takes 2 years.
Under typical scenario (250TT to 1500TT in 6 Months). Would require over 200hrs per month, and 7hrs of flying every single day. It is impossible.
To put it in perspective. I graduated ATP March 2018 with 250TT. Working 6-7 days a week, 10-15hr days (Duty Time, not all flying), I averaged 115hrs per month and got hired at a Regional in April 2019. It was a brutal amount of work running around South FL networking and sweating through multiple flying outfits every day. Then get home, do laundry, sleep and repeat. Only reason I accomplished it was because I love flying and having fun / teaching students.
Now is likely even harder due to the saturation of CFIs and lack of flying jobs for Low Time Pilots. I’d plan on at least 18 months from starting ATP (With Private) to meeting Airline Mins.
Chris F. (The other Chris)
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Jeff,
As Chris said it really depends on how much time you’re going in with. If you’re at the mins you’ll finish ATP with about 250hrs. That leaves 1250 to complete in 6mos which is over 200hrs a month which is not going to happen and frankly is unrealistic.
Further if I were on your hiring board I’d think you either lied in your logbook or had little regard for safety or the benefit of your students. This is not a race to check the box, the time required is to build experience.
Adam
Jeff,
No. It is really tough to fly more than 80-100 hours per month. Furthermore, if you become the CFI that just wants to fly and does not want to spend any time with his students on the ground, people will refuse to fly with you. As a CFI your job is not to build time for the airlines. Your job is to provide the best quality instruction to your students. If you do that, the time will follow.
Chris
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Jeff,
I can echo what the guys are saying. From zero time to 1500 hours I did it in 22 months. I finished the program a month early and then flew 100-120 hours a month. A few months I peaked at 140hours and I can tell you that was my absolute limit. Instructing is very fatiguing and when it comes to safety, you have to limit yourself. As Chris was saying, a good CFI prioritizes ground time and sim time with their students which takes time away from flying but it has to be done. I was a lead instructor so most of my time was spent doing eval flights and stage check flights so I flew a bit more than some of the instructors so keep that in context. Two years is a reasonable goal, still incredibly fast paced. Plus you may get to a location and not be able to obtain those kind of hours. The least amount of students you have, the least you will be able to fly. So even your monthly accrual isnt totally in your control.
-Hannah