Airlines, pilots disagree over pilot shortage

The state of the pilot supply came under scrutiny at the House Aviation Subcommittee on Wednesday as industry stakeholders who testified disagreed on whether there is a shortage and whether measures such as raising the mandatory retirement age for airlines will they helped.

Regional Airline Association President and CEO Faye Malarkey Black in testimony called the situation “devastating” and said that despite increased passenger demand, the shortage is destroying the small air service in the community. She said the shortage has been growing for decades, with a major issue stemming from the FAA’s slow action to advance pilot training standards.

“The impacts of the pilot shortage are real,” she said. “Currently, more than 500 regional aircraft are parked and those aircraft that remain in service are unused. The impact was felt by 308 airports or almost 72 percent of all US airports.

Calling the situation particularly acute among airline captains, she said the fact that 50 percent of the pilot workforce will be forced to retire in the next 15 years will make the problem worse.

“Thousands of willing, healthy and able pilots who would like to continue working are being forced out of the profession at age 65, to the detriment of air service across the country,” Black said. Despite the increase in pilot certificates, there are still not enough qualified and interested people to hire, she added.

Last year marked a record for newly qualified pilots – 9,491, but the number “was not much lower than the 13,128 hired by just a subset of the airline industry last year,” she pointed out. “It is very important to put the pilot production in 2022 in the right context.”

The Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) released data ahead of Wednesday’s hearing showing that the FAA has certified 2,658 new airline pilots in the first three months of this year alone and 63,932 since 2013, when they entered the strictest qualification rules in force (the so-called 1500 hours Rule). Airlines filled about 40,000 positions at one time.

“Over the past 10 years, the United States has not only reduced airline passenger deaths, but has also produced more than enough pilots to meet airline employment requirements,” said ALPA President Jason Ambrosi. . “The groups that continue to pour out misinformation and misleading data are only interested in one thing: creating a crisis to lower aviation safety standards and increase their bottom line.”

ALPA blames airlines’ decision to crash smaller equipment, aircraft parking and pilot leave during the pandemic for creating the current situation. When demand returned and airlines rehired pilots, they needed retraining, creating a backlog. Ambrose told lawmakers he believed there was enough supply to meet demand and warned against raising the pilot age on the grounds that it would put the US out of sync with international standards.

Heather Krause, director of physical infrastructure for the Government Accountability Office (GAO), noted that the number of individuals qualified to become airline pilots increased between 2017 and 2022, and training school enrollments also increased. grew up. Forecasters predict an increase in pilot supply, she testified, but “the extent to which projected supply would exceed or fall short of industry demand for pilots is unknown, given uncertainties about future demand. “

Employment and salary data show strong demand for pilots, and regional airlines in particular have struggled to meet this demand. Airlines have raised wages and the FAA is taking steps to support workforce development, she noted, but it’s unclear whether those steps will be enough.