Cockpit Chronicles: Landing an airline pilot job just got harder, but here's one way to do it.

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-03-2011 @ 9:58PM

Joseph said...

Hello, Kent, I have a question about the article that you wrote about landing an airline pilot job. Is it true that the airline industry will be less competitive by the time I apply for a position as a first officer at an airline (which I highly doubt for now)?
Is any of this stuff true about all these other things you said in the article above?

I agree with the stuff you said about the 1,500 hour rule.
I hope to attend flight school during college, while I major in geography in several years.

After college, I plan to go back to flight school to become a flight instructor
and accumulate 2,000 hours of flying time by providing quality and top notch flight instruction to student pilots at any flight school that I work at, so that I can obtain the ATPL.

After that, I will try to accumulate about another 2,000 hours at any small airline, or perhaps NetJets if I'm lucky enough. If I make it to NetJets I can perhaps spend those 2,000 hours or more flying private turbofan jets, so that I can become a better candidate to apply for a major airline.
If I dont make it to NetJets, I can work for a small airline and then move on to Netjets so that I can make it to the major airlines.

And one more question, why does American Airlines have so many pilots on furlough, like 9,300 pilots?

7-06-2011 @ 12:52AM

monsontem said...

I think the furlough count for American Airlines is currently sitting at around 1800, if I'm not mistaken.

Source:

http://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/legacy/american.html

7-09-2011 @ 4:59AM

Kent Wien said...

Hi Joseph,

I stand by what I said. But it's good to have some skepticism about a pilot shortage. It's been parroted for years by industry experts and hasn't quite happened yet. But the combined duty time regulations that will require more pilots (Delta claims just a few hundred would be needed, AA says 2,300 for them) and the 1,500 hour rule, and you can see how the market will dry up rather quickly.

Until then, airlines, especially the regionals, may try to pick up as many as they can before the rule goes into effect.

NetJets is becoming quite a destination in itself. I have a few friends there who have no desire to fly for the major airlines. In fact, one good friend of mine retired at 50 years old from AA to work at NetJets.

See my comment below for a clarification of the furlough numbers at AA.

7-09-2011 @ 5:03AM

Kent Wien said...

American is recalling pilots rapidly right now. As of the July 6 class, there are currently 974 pilots who are on furlough and have not been offered recall. There are 763 pilots who remain on deferred status.

Many of the deferred are pilots who have found work at other airlines and have no plans to come back. I suspect that sometime in the first half of 2012, AA will have to start hiring 'off the street.'

There are about 9,600 pilots employed by AA right now, not including the furloughed ones mentioned above.

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