Regional Airlines’ Pilot Shortage is Heading Toward the Perfect Storm
Photo Credit: With mainline airline pilots retiring and carriers such as United and Delta hiring for the first time in years, they are looking to regional airline pilots to fill the ranks. flickr.com / JL Johnson
Skift Take
Major airlines covet their regional airline partners' pilots, and the big carriers are going to have to come up with programs to help the regionals get through the crunch.
Regional airline pilots are trained to fly in all kinds of weather, but they are heading toward the proverbial perfect storm.
That's because regional airline pilot-recruitment wars are about to get intense, very messy, and ugly.
Next year is destined to be the beginning of crunch time in the battle for cockpit talent among regional and mainline airlines for several reasons: Major airlines, including Delta and United, are beginning to hire pilots for the first time in several years, and they will look to the upper ranks of regional airlines to fill a large number of the positions.
Regional airlines, which range from American Eagle and Republic Airways to Air Wisconsin and Mesa, are already facing a hiring crisis and will find it increasingly difficult to fill pilot positions because of the talent drain to the mainline airlines, and more rigorous, federally imposed training requirements.
This pinch could be somewhat offset by the phasing out of some -- but not all -- 50-sea
