Robert Isom, the CEO of American Airlines, said on Friday that the carrier is cutting back on the number of regional jets. He thinks the problem can be fixed with the right compensation and incentives. There was a shortage of pilots at United Airlines in December. There aren't enough pilots to fly planes and some airlines are having to park them. The CEO of American Airlines said at the conference on Friday that the carrier is having a pilot shortage. The news was first reported by a newspaper. He said that there is a supply and demand imbalance within the regional carriers. We have a lot of aircraft that aren't productive and aren't flying. He explained that the planes parked are 50 and 76-seaters. American has been able to make up for the lack of frequencies by flying larger regional aircraft. The company is currently hiring 2,000 pilots and believes if there are appropriate incentives and the kind of compensation that attracts people to the industry, then this can be fixed.
With the busy summer travel season quickly approaching, the airline industry is grappling with a shortage of pilots. As their pilots move to larger airlines, regional carriers have been hit the hardest.
According to Jonathan Ornstein, the CEO of Mesa Airlines, it takes about four months to replace a pilot who puts in two weeks' notice to fly for a larger carrier.
One carrier is trying to get more pilots to fly sooner by changing training requirements.
Republic Airways, which flies on behalf of Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and American Airlines, requested permission from the FAA to hire pilots from its training academy. Republic wants to cut the number of hours a pilot needs to be hired by half.
"Republic is not proposing to overturn the 1500-hour rule or weaken safety; to the contrary, we are proposing a more intensive, mission-specific training pathway similar to what is permitted for military pilots under current law," the CEO said.
The proposal is a data-supported "pathway" that will "produce higher performing pilots while reducing significant economic barriers to enable more diversity in our cockpits."
Some exemptions allow pilots to be hired with less training. Those with two or four-year degrees can be hired with 1,250 and 1,000 hours.
There are other airlines that have grounded aircraft. There was a shortage of pilots and United Airlines decided to park 100 jets.
"The pilot shortage for the industry is real, and most airlines are simply not going to be able to realize their capacity plans because there simply aren't enough pilots, at least not for the next five-plus years," United CEO Scott Kirby said in a quarterly earnings call in April,
The shortage was worsened when the industry lost thousands of pilots due to early retirement, and carriers expect the low supply to continue as the mandatory retirement age increases.
The retirement age for pilots could be raised to 67 under a proposal by Senator Lindsay Graham.
"Cutting the number of required flying hours may look like a riskier approach than allowing a healthy pilot to continue flying a few more years," said Henry Harteveldt, travel analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group.
Business Insider has an article on it.
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