Has anyone seen the news from United a couple days ago? (link below)
Basically United is to hire 10,000 new pilots in the next decade which sounds very promising for us wanting to get into the career field in the next couple of years. If Delta and American, who are similarly sized, have the same demographics (age), they too will probably need around 10,000 new pilots each so 30,000 for just the Big 3. Along with the other Majors like Hawaiian, Alaska, Southwest, JetBlue and others, I’m sure it will push it to closer to 50,000 probably, again if they have similar demographics. Anyone think this is off the mark? Does the US even produce 5,000 pilots annually? I don’t think ATP, the largest producers of new pilots crack 1,000 new pilots a year. Any thoughts what this might mean for the industry? Maybe regionals filing for bankruptcy like Great Lakes and Republic a few years ago perhaps?
This really isn’t new news. The industry had seen this coming for a while and is doing their best to keep up. Demand is always good for us. We may see some more consolidation, more bridge programs etc. but again should be good for all.
Yes I know there is a general shortage of pilots and the demand is going to go up in the next few years/decades. This is just the first I’ve seen from an actual major U.S. airline with solid number predictions, there may be others, but I haven’t seen any lately. Most, like the predictions that Boeing and Airbus put out or the article Tory pointed out are for industry or worldwide numbers/statistics and they aren’t the actual companies doing the hiring. I think United’s announcement just put things in perspective basically with actual numbers and timeline for a single company who is going to be hiring the pilots. Exciting times being for being a pilot, and those of us aspiring to be for sure!
Interesting article for sure. There is no date on the article but it appears to be written before 2012. Would be nice if there was a new piece with updated statistics, but valid points nonetheless, thanks.
This whole hiring program by United is a huge admission that there is a large need for pilots and that there will continue to be into the future. I don’t think that this will really upset the industry, but hopefully we will continue to see a return of flying to the mainlines as the regionals shrink a bit and more pilots get hired at the legacy airlines.
I’m 27 and just started my flight training about a month ago… I don’t hold a college degree and was thinking if it’s necessary and worth obtaining a college degree for the majors later down the road… Thought on this please!
