The Pilot Shortage

It would be tough for anyone even remotely close to the aviation industry not to realize there is a shortage of well-qualified pilots here in the United States. The effects of the age-65 retirement adjustment in 2009 really began grabbing airline pilots out of the cockpit the past few years. Adding to the problem is an airline industry expansion worldwide that Boeing believes will demand nearly 800,000 cockpit crewmembers, 117,000 in the United States alone, over the next 20 years. Just for good measure, let’s toss in the 2013 change to Part 121 that requires all airline pilots to hold an ATP certificate, a tightening of requirements that hit regional carriers particularly hard. Working in the airline’s favor to attract pilots over the past few years are several recent quarters of serious profits, enough to throw fresh money into the compensation and benefits pool needed to attract new talent. So critical has the need become for qualified pilots that the FAA in mid-September held its first workforce symposium in Washington, D.C., to begin addressing solutions designed to persuade more young people to give the aviation industry a second, or perhaps even a first, look. The summit focused in part on recruiting civilian and military pilots, as well as maintenance technicians. Acting FAA administrator Daniel Elwell said, “We’re going to look at how new and existing partnerships between the airlines, government and academia can support all of these efforts.” While the airline pilot shortage has pretty much found its way to nearly every news outlet, the real story is that the airlines aren’t the only segment staring down the barrel of a severe pilot shortage. Business aviation, the men and women who fly Gulfstream 650s, Bombardier Globals, Dassault 8Xs and Cessna Citations domestically and internationally for some of the nation’s largest and most successful companies, is facing some of the same hurdles as the airlines, except, of course, bizav isn’t worried about age-65 retirements or nearly out-of-control industry expansion. Jad Donaldson, director of aviation at Harley-Davidson and chairman of the National Business Aviation Association’s Business Aviation Management Committee (BAMC), says business aviation leaders view the human capital shortage as “an immediate problem demanding a long-term fix.” Industry sources confirm some senior bizav pilots have jumped ship for the airlines, but not in significant numbers — at least not yet.