Airline Pilot Shortage?

Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Wednesday, April 19, 2023 at 12:03 PM ET

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Key Takeaways:

While the airline pilot career path offers significant rewards and improving entry conditions with better pay, bonuses, and removed college requirements, it still presents challenges like high training costs and historical management-employee issues.
A critical gap exists in pilot training, as many instructors fail to cover essential real-world practicalities of general aviation, such as airport fees, diverse fueling procedures, and local services, forcing pilots to learn these crucial details independently.

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Thanks for your editorial, “Airline Pilot Shortage?” in the February 2023 issue. As a career aviator with over 50 years in the “Wild Blue,” both a corporate and airline kinda guy, I have some insight I’d like to share.

You are right that the road up to the Bigs through the commuters is or was long and often cumbersome, and really didn’t pay so well. But the commuters are giving Covid raises now, along with signing bonuses and sometimes a guaranteed flow-through to the Bigs.