Pilot Shortage?

The normal path for a fledgling airline pilot is to build his/her hours-traditionally as a CFI for pitifully low pay-and get a job with a regional carrier. That new first officer had an average starting pay in the mid-$20/hour range just a few years ago, before the hype of the pilot shortage. Second-year pay jumped nicely, sometimes as much as 50%, but then it stagnated at a few percent a year. A fifth-year first officer might have been making into $40-some/hour.

Frank Bowlin

Sunday, September 16, 2018 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The article argues that the widely discussed "pilot shortage" is primarily a "pay shortage," especially for regional airline pilots.
Entry-level regional pilots earn very low wages, often in the mid-$30K range annually, and even experienced regional captains' pay remains uncompetitive with other professions demanding similar education and apprenticeship.
While senior major airline captains can earn high salaries, this is not typical; many pilots, even at major carriers, earn significantly less.
The success of low-cost airlines like Southwest in offering high pilot salaries challenges the industry's claim that low ticket prices prevent better pilot compensation.

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The aviation press has covered the present pilot shortage in some detail. One aspect, however, that hasn’t received a lot of coverage is pilot pay. Some cynics in the know have long claimed that we don’t have a pilot shortage, we have a pay shortage, and there’s a lot of truth to that.

The normal path for a fledgling airline pilot is to build his/her hours—traditionally as a CFI for pitifully low pay—and get a job with a regional carrier. That new first officer had an average starting pay in the mid-$20/hour range just a few years ago, before the hype of the pilot shortage. Second-year pay jumped nicely, sometimes as much as 50%, but then it stagnated at a few percent a year. A fifth-year first officer might have been making into $40-some/hour.