The Pilot Shortage

By Matthew Odenbrett

The current worldwide pilot shortage has brought many opportunities to many pilots. Long gone are the days when experienced pilots were so plentiful that employers could cherry-pick from several hundred qualified applicants for a single pilot position. The wave of retirements at the majors – coupled with heightened demand for air travel – has completely upended the market for professional pilots. Now regional airlines are offering up to six-figure hiring bonuses to pilots that have enough experience to be hired into the left seat. This of course, would not happen at a major airline where unions have made seniority as much a part of advancement as qualifications.

So for now, competition is intense for business aviation operators to hire and retain qualified pilots. The salaries being offered – while still low compared to the major airlines – is trending upwards very fast. There is also a trend to hire anyone who meets the minimum qualifications for the right seat. I definitely see a shallowing of the pilot pool when it comes to experience.

I just left my most recent full-time job as Captain on a Gulfstream IV for a new company that offered me a Captain position on a Gulfstream 550. This new job pays much better, and it starts with a new type rating for me.

So I am now at CAE’s training facility in Morristown N.J., in a class with 10 other pilots. Several are from Netjets, while others are from smaller operations. One thing that stands out is the fact that I am the oldest student in the class. Several students are moving up from a Gulfstream IV (like me), the others have flown Challenger 605s and 300s. One is a former regional airline pilot.

Shawn - my soon-to-be sim partner – retired two years ago from the Denver Police Dept., and he decided to fly for a living as a second career. I can’t blame him for that, but I was surprised when I discovered that he holds a Commercial certificate and has slightly less than 1,500 hours total time in his logbook. He explained that the company will have him take his ATP exam on his next sim recurrent session, one year from now. Shawn spent one year at a freight operation in Denver, then came to this company a year ago and was typed in the Challanger 300. The G550 is his sec- ond jet type rating in a year.

I was shaking my head at that. I explained to Shawn that when I was at 1,500 hours, I was only entrusted by my employer to fly charters in the Cessna 210, 303, and 310. I was allowed to sit right seat in the company’s Cessna 404. Eventually I became Captain on the C404 but not before I had surpassed the 2,000-hour mark. My employer also managed a Cessna C421C, but no one would be considered to fly that unless they had more than 3,500 hours in their logbook.

I didn’t fly the Pilatus PC-12 until I had surpassed 5,000 hours. My first jet type rating was the Cessna 500 series Citation. I paid for that out of pocket, because no one would hire me in 2008 without a type rating already in hand. I had 7,500 hours logged when I earned that type rating.

To be clear, I have literally had to fight for every paid flying position that I have worked at. I am of the “Lost Generation” of pilots who were unqualified to fly for the major airlines (in their eyes) until retirements forced them to start hiring any warm body that had an ATP and a pulse. The problem is that now I would not consider flying for them because due to my age, I would be forced by the Age 65 rule into retirement long before I could make up for the loss of income I would have to endure at a legacy carrier.

So how did we get to this pilot shortage? Let’s take a look back in history.

The airline-hiring boom of the 1980s came about because the Vietnam-era veteran pilots had reached their mandatory age 60 retirement. This led to a large number of young pilots being hired at that time. Those pilots are now retiring as they reach age 65. This sudden loss of pilots has long been known to be looming on the horizon, but no one at any of the major airlines did anything about it, and now it is too late. They were all too focused on meeting their quarterly bottom lines. Corporate myopia can be very damaging at times.

Historically, there was a flow that was observed in a pilot’s career progression. After earning a Commercial Certificate, a pilot could either get a CFI and then instruct at flight