Airline Pilot Shortage

There are three things that are going to cause a pilot shortage over the next few years. According to The Wall Street Journal they are: Thousands of pilots are coming close to their mandatory retirement age, a new safety rule that will give airline pilots better crew rest before flights, and the FAA mandating that airline pilot must have 1500 flight hours before they can be hired. The next few years are going to be tough in the aviation industry.

The mandatory retirement age for pilots per FAA regulation is age 65. There are many senior pilots that are about to be forced to retire. This usually would not be a problem if the FAA did not mandate the 1500 flight hour rule. According to the University of Oklahoma Aviation Program one can graduate with a Professional Pilot degree with approximately 250 flight hours after paying about 35,000 dollars in flight fees alone, not to include tuition at OU. Normally this degree program would not be a problem because the airliners use to be able to hire pilots with only 250 flight hours. It will be tough for pilots because it will cost them a lot to make up the 1,250 flight hours needed to meet the minimums for airliners. Aerosim Flight Academy post their prices online for flights per hour. On average a one hour flight cost 140 dollars, totaling the cost for the additional flight hours out to 175,000 dollars. The cost for flight hours may stop people from wanting to be pilots. Spending about a total of 200,000 dollars in flight fees without a job guarantee is difficult for anyone.

Effective in 2014 pilots will be given more crew rest before a flight. AinOnline posts that it will put limitations on how much they can fly and how much rest they are allotted for sleep. The new safety regulation will increase the amount of pilots that airliners need to hire. With Pilots retiring and the new safety regulation there will be a demand for pilots within the next few years, but with the 1500 hour flight rule there will not be enough pilots for hire.