SkyWest's Plans to Circumvent Impending Pilot Shortage

[XPOO]

SkyWest Airlines and Westminster College are teaming up to help train the airline's future pilots.

The college recently announced that it has entered into a partnership with the St. George-based airline that will bring together students from Westminster's Aviation Studies program with SkyWest captains, with the goal of eventually helping graduates get hired as SkyWest first officers.

Link to the full article can be found here.

 

[JustaNumber]

Great plan, but where do all the college students get 1200 or 1000 hours from? Traditionally, CFI's move up because they have a greater number of students coming up behind them who need teaching. Where are these great multitudes of new students coming from?

It's getting much harder to finance flight training these days (as the banks are tired of getting screwed by over-zealous students who end up unable to repay because they are making peanuts for years). But more importantly, the college students themselves are telling the market that the payoff is not worth the investment.

There is no way this program will provide all the pilots that the airlines are going to need in the next year or even several years.

 

[Carl_Spackler]

I'm pretty sure that any CFI with ATP mins will be able to get any regional interview they want.

 

[livin'thesim]

Isn't there a reduced hour part of the new reg for certain college flight programs and military pilots?

 

[JustaNumber]

Isn't there a reduced hour part of the new reg for certain college flight programs and military pilots?

Yes, if you train part 61 you'll still need 1500 hours for an ATP. If you go to an "approved" 2 year college, you'll only need 1200 hours, an "approved" 4 year university, 1000 hours, and military training 750 hours (if I recall correctly).

 

[JustaNumber]

I'm pretty sure that any CFI with ATP mins will be able to get any regional interview they want.

Agreed, but how many CFIs with ATP mins are left, and how many will be needed by the regional industry just to make it past the FTDT rule change? Big pilot shortages and big changes are coming for the regional industry.

 

[Nevets]

Agreed, but how many CFIs with ATP mins are left, and how many will be needed by the regional industry just to make it past the FTDT rule change? Big pilot shortages and big changes are coming for the regional industry.

The question should be, of those with ATP mins, how many would want to work at Skywest or any regional? Only time will tell.

 

[wms]

This is a poor option for a new pilot. A couple years to finish school, instruct another 3-4 to get the hours with a 5 year commitment at the regional to get an interview at ml. Instead you could go corporate(theyre having staffing issues also) after college, make good money and meet the mins for the majors much sooner, and have better qol in the mean time.

 

[livin'thesim]

Are there enough corporate gigs to absorb a lot of 400hr pilots?

I could see some enterprising 135 companies try the pay-for-right-seat thing again, which is awful.

 

[livin'thesim]

One thing will happen, though, is that wages for sub-1500 hour jobs will go down, because more people will be competing for them.