
The US is facing a serious shortage of airline pilots - daegloe
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/airline-pilot-shortage-united-states/index.html
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AngryData
Alternately, US airline companies don't give enough compensation to attract
qualified pilots. Becoming a pilot is extremely expensive unless you flew in
the military. Once you do get your license, anyone that is hiring you is going
to give you some little rinky dink plane to fly for years with odd schedules
while paying you the same as if you worked at costco. In the mean time, there
are numerous ways to get blacklisted or possibly lose your pilot's license
unexpectedly like getting diagnosed bipolar. (Doesn't it make you feel safer
that pilots will skip psychiatric help out of fear of losing their license
from a diagnosis?)

And then some time down the line when you finally log enough hours and flights
to get a bigger plane, now you have far more passengers to worry about, higher
scrutiny from the company, and a much larger and more complex plane to make
everything more stressful to finally break into 6 figures.

Without having a multi-millionaire family or a parent that is a pilot, the
only reasonable way of even becoming a commercial pilot is to fly for the
military. Otherwise you aren't going to get enough flight hours to make any
real money until you are already approaching retirement age and having already
built a whole other career to support the cost of flying or owning even a
small cessna.

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kevin_b_er
At least this article proposes a possible solution: Airlines must have their
own training schools to supply the flight hour requirements.

In the end it comes down to something similar as many industries, which can
see by fixing the title: The US is facing a serious shortage of airline pilots
willing to be underpaid.

~~~
mirimir
True. But also ...

> The industry has taken a few steps to address this problem. Regional
> airlines now offer much higher pay and even signing bonuses.

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jonatron
In other industries, companies will provide free training, with the condition
that you will need to pay back some money if you leave within a certain period
of time. This can be reasonable.

Airlines want aspiring pilots to pay ~$100k for training with no guarantee of
a job. This doesn't seem reasonable to me.

~~~
toomuchtodo
You are also making poverty level wages ($15k-22k/year) on commuter jets for
years until slots open up that pay more. Air travel demand drops? Be prepared
to be furloughed with no promise of a job in the future.

Truckers, pilots, there is no shortage. Just a shortage of pay and reasonable
working conditions & benefits.

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pasbesoin
I haven't read the article, yet, but the U.S. has developed a system that is a
government subsidized, two-tier workforce.

Military-trained pilots. Highly trained and experienced -- although not always
in aircraft that reflect commercial flight profiles. I don't know how much the
2003 onward wars have influenced this, but prior, one put in their 5-7-10
years, then exited to a highly paid and privileged position with a commercial
airline.

Self/privately trained pilots. Those were routed to local and regional
carriers, that have been increasingly snapped up by the major carriers and
integrated into their networks. Learning to fly isn't cheap (not just
training, but also getting hours -- on machines that are expensive to own and
operate, ergo also to rent); despite this, these people end up in positions
that often pay substantially below the median middle-class wage.

I don't recall the details, but already some years ago, I read some things
indicating that pilots, including the ex-military, have increasing concern
about career futures. I think in part, with the ex-military, it's wage
pressure from the privately-trained.

Airlines also got pretty good at union-flogging, if not outright busting,
tactics, for a while. The dips after 2003 and 2008 helped in this. Going by my
memory...

\--

P.S. I read the article. I'll leave my original comment as is. Well, I said
2003, thinking of the invasion of Iraq and the pressures demands that placed.
But yeah, 2001 is another position on the timeline to point to.

~~~
ReallyAnonymous
The US has too many MBA types that determine that the 'job' is one that either
'anyone can do' vs 'very popular', so then they push wages down. It works for
a while, as those that have chosen a career path feel it's not worthwhile to
change midroute, but eventually, especially with the internet, people
communicate and/or look up a profession and see if it's worth pursuing. More
and more, 'management / administration' are the jobs that continually give
advancement and bonuses, whereas previous good jobs (like cross country
truckers, airline pilots, professors, etc... ) are no longer lucrative. Then,
all of a sudden, there's a panic as people realize 'how come no one is
becoming blah blah blah after post grad education of x years and a salary of
22k. Just look at the rise of administrative employees of universities and
hospitals in this country. Mainly, supportive, non-critical jobs (in my
opinion) that determine people's salaries, make all the money, and get all the
bonuses.

Moreover, how many people know someone who has 'maxed out his pay at his
current job' at age 50? I believe the reason corporate America was against the
ACA was to prevent capped employees from leaving bc of fear of losing health
insurance. My brother is a senior EE and is 50 and is capped and financially
could retire except what will insurance cost in 10 years? What if it got too
expensive for him? Can you get a job after not working for 10 years? So he's
kinda stuck. Of course, he no longer works weekends, even when the project is
behind, bc he's told his boss he'd retire if he's let go, and he's pretty
valuable to them (but not valuable enough to give more raises and bonuses (I
think he makes about $150k a year))

Anyway, hopefully the pendulum will swing back to the 'workers' a bit, and not
the spreadsheet gurus

~~~
pasbesoin
50 is when it starts to get significantly harder to get into Canada, IIRC.

I don't know how he would feel about moving. The professional background would
be a big plus in an application for residency. But, unless he has investor
class savings, he'd be looking at continuing to work, probably at lower pay.

But... it would solve the health insurance problem. (So would parts of
Europe.)

Probably better for him to stay, and stay at 40 hours a week. Maybe a
consulting sideline, if his circumstances allow.

Which reminds me; for some professional categories, there's pretty good group
insurance through professional organizations. Or so I hear, while I've yet to
find something like that for myself.

By the way, corporate America was crying out for something to be done, when
the ACA was proposed and written. Businesses were facing double digit
percentage year over year increases, and were saying 'we can't continue to
compete particularly with foreign competition that doesn't have these levels
of expense -- neither absolute nor yearly increases'.

I view it as a very middle of the road proposal. It kept the existing
insurance and provider structures and worked to increase the customer base. It
also had provisions for getting over the "hump" period where previously
uninsured were incorporated, caught up on deferred care, and during which
insurers' actuaries would have a chance to determine and model the new
population.

Reflecting Obama's rhetoric leading into his first term, it was designed to
bring people together. And it was also successful in measures that don't get
as much credit. For example, it really did provide some significant cost
controls for group insurance. One reason the hue and cry from employers died
down.

But it was deliberately sabotaged -- rather than improved -- with the goal of
turning it into political fodder by a party whose leadership put itself before
all else.

I think I agree with you, that employer-provided group insurance has become
quite anti-competitive.

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chaoticmass
I used to work with a guy at a computer store in the repair department who was
a commercial pilot. He was using the computer store gig as a side job to try
to get a foot in the door on an IT career. He said he loved flying, but the
compensation he was getting, plus the strict requirements and tough work
environment, made it not worth it for him anymore.

~~~
yesiamyourdad
I used to work side by side as a software engineer at a major airline (one of
the survivors today, this was 20+ years ago) with a guy who was using
programming as a side job to get a gig as a pilot. He got on with a regional,
he told me every pilot had a side gig. They would take turns sleeping in the
cockpit. Once he woke up from his nap and the captain had passed out. Good
thing autopilot works!

More recently, I dated a woman who flies full time for a regional. She
qualifies for low income housing.

