Taylor Rains/Insider
- An ongoing pilot shortage has plagued US airlines since travel came roaring back post-pandemic.
- American Airlines says it is seeing shortfalls on the regional side, forcing it to cut flying to small markets.
- Carriers have used different strategies to attract pilots, like doubling pay and hiring from abroad.
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, countries quickly closed their borders and travel came to a screeching halt.
Carriers were forced to scale back operations, meaning tens of thousands of pilots were furloughed or offered early retirement.
However, the COVID-19 vaccine allowed international restrictions to relax, and by summer 2021, travel came roaring back. But the damage was already done.
Management consulting firm Oliver Wyman told CNBC in September 2022 that the industry is short about 8,000 pilots — a problem that led to last summer's travel chaos in which nearly one million flights flying within, into, or out of the US were delayed or canceled between May and September.
The firm further said the number could reach 30,000 by 2025.
To alleviate these pilot deficits, Senator Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina) has reintroduced a bill that would increase the mandatory retirement age for pilots from 65 to 67. The senator argues some 5,000 pilots will be forced to retire in the next two years, further stressing the shortage.
While some organizations — like the Regional Airline Association advocacy group — have praised the legalization, the Air Line Pilots Association has opposed it, Reuters reported. The union says increasing the retirement age could impact safety.
Carriers like American Airlines have acknowledged the shortage, with CEO Robert Isom saying the company is having a "shortfall of pilots" on its regional side, including its wholly-owned subsidiaries PSA Airlines, Envoy Air, and Piedmont Airlines.
"We didn't attract people into the business for a couple of years, and we're working our way through that as we have retirements that are coming out the other side," he said in a fourth-quarter earnings call.
As airlines become more desperate for pilots, they have come up with different approaches to filling the cockpit.
Hiring from abroad
Low-cost carrier Breeze Airways is taking advantage of an E-3 work visa program that allows qualified Australian nationals to apply for employment with the airline. However, foreign pilots will have to cover the cost of travel and the visa before flying for Breeze.
"It's an opportunity to give good, hardworking, well-qualified folks jobs who want to live in the US [and] want to be a pilot for a US airline," Christopher Owens, Breeze's vice president of flight operations, told Insider in January 2022.
Increasing pilot pay
Regional flying has been particularly impacted by the pilot shortage, forcing airlines to slash dozens of flights to small markets and even ground regional jets.
In an effort to attract and retain talent, carriers have dramatically increased pilot wages. Crew members at American subsidiaries PSA, Envoy, and Piedmont had their salaries nearly doubled, while Delta recently agreed to a new contract increasing pilot pay by 34% over four years.
Other regional carriers like Mesa Airlines, Republic Airways, and Delta's wholly-owned airline Endeavor Air have also gotten pay increases. Delta, however, has maintained that it is not experiencing a shortage at the mainline, with company CEO Ed Bastian telling CNBC in January that "we've got the staff we need."
Lowering training requirements
Regional carrier Republic recently asked the FAA to reduce the flight hour requirement for pilots graduating from its LIFT pilot training academy.
Currently, pilots who want to fly for a regional airline need 1,500 hours but can have as low as 1,000 or 1,250 with an accredited college degree, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
But, Republic wanted a 750-hour requirement — a request the FAA denied in September, saying the company's flight academy "does not provide an equivalent level of safety as the regulation requiring 1,500 hours of flight experience before a pilot may work for an airline."