There Aren’t Enough Pilots, Perhaps Understandably

As Justin Bachman at Businessweek reports, there is a shortage of pilots, primarily regional pilots working for smaller airlines feeling the tug of increasing federal regulations. Also, the pay is terrible and your job is terrifying (to me). Honestly, I had no idea:

The regional side of the U.S. airline industry has long been a fiercely competitive arena in which the big airlines auction large sections of their flight schedules to the lowest bidder. That’s put pressure on wages: The starting salary for a first officer at a regional airline is a little more than $21,000 per year — about $40,000 lower than the same job at Delta (DAL) and United (UAL), according to the Air Line Pilots Association, the largest U.S. pilot union.

And the stingy pay, in turn, exacerbates the pilot shortage. Not only does it make pilot jobs less appealing, but the small salaries also combine with the more onerous federal training rules to put many new pilots deep in debt. Paying for the necessary hours of training flights before getting a first job can cost more than $100,000.

Apparently, many pilots are defecting to international airlines, like Emirates, which pays $82,000/year plus a housing allowance and “other extraordinary benefits.”

Photo: NZ Defence Force

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