Airlines Face Pilot-Availability

Another example of how our government’s irrational, kneejerk behavior is hurting the aviation industry. Very few young people have the money to be able to get 1500tt under their belt, and others turned away because of some minor medical issue or medication that would not get you turned away from any other industry.
But as long as you have politicians and bureaucrats who know nothing about aviation running the FAA, this is what you are going to get.

So NOW they realize they need us after all...

I'm one of the idiots whose been waiting 15 years for this "pilot shortage"....like the man said " I'm still waiting".

I just left a comment on another squawk where a pilot is working to build an endowment fund to help young folks start flight training. It could be a start, at least.
http://flightaware.com/squawks/view/1/7_days/new/27493/Aviation_Endowment_Needs_Help_to_Get_Off_Ground

With 20+ years in G.A. under my belt it's this way.Their seems to have always been a future with high demands for for more pilots than have never materialized .Now the fas has set this new minimum flight regs.for new pilots.Consider this example,a close friend went to flight school guaranteed a right seat and spent over 25k to get there only to go through and pass a check ride(a very tough one at that) and a lot of classroom also only to find out that with his time,experience,dedication and love of flying only had him starting at a base pay of 20kthe plus.Now all of a sudden from nowhere he is hit with more minimum hours reguired and more certificates needed.What is he and are they to do for they have borrowed all they can and now have no more resources to use.To me this example does not paint a good picture of the future of the industry.There are young men and women out there,just give them the chance to do what they know and love.They will work the long hours and fly numerous legs loaded with delays and long hours if you give them the chance.

In these years if they worked for me at the fbo and had a chance to go log an hour or two then by gosh I sent them off and worked for them.I remember many a night getting called middle of the night wanted to fly checks or cargo for as little as 45 minutes.It adds up.
I just hope seriously that the feds really take another look at this for these kids need to be logging hours with package in back.Not scratching and clawing for even a test flight of 10the minutes in the pattern.
Good luck kids.

Haven't heard much about the rails but long haul trucking companies have faced an on/off driver shortage over the past several years and for some of the same reasons that are mentioned in this story. While it has not been the total answer, a lot of them have started their own driver training program or have contracted with a close by 3rd party to provide the same. They pay for the training, giving the applicant a job guarantee but the applicant signs a committment to drive X number of years. It is a drastic move but something will have to be done over the next year or 2 or the Airlines will be in the same shape. Being a victim of it I am prdjudice but there is still a large pool of senior pilots out there.I think raising that age limit might be a stop gap, and is going to have to be considered.

watch for the push to extend the age limit to 67 or even 70...

I would seriously like to get back in the game but the cost of training is through the roof and I have a young family and the pay-scale isn't looking to attractive these days ..The Military pool is twindling as well as the use of unmanned aircraft rises and those who are enlisted as pilots elect to stay in rather than join the private sector...Hopefully they will be able to figure this all out before it's to late.

I expect that the industry will help solve the issue by further simplifying and dumbing down this profession through more technologically automated advancements until the eventual day of full automation arrives.

It's going to happen, the last 5 years of stability were just an illusion by extending the 60-65 age limit.

The catch is, pilot certification rules have recently changed and it's going to cost much more (4-5x more) to populate the right seat of any airliner.