Its comes as no shock to any pilots out there the eye watering cost of aviation training is crazy. For most, that means taking on a lot of early debt, that should be repaid within at least 10 years because of how well the wages for pilots scale, but that often means lost time in acquiring a house, a new car and not to mention any student loan debt that is incurred as well. Because of this cost, there have been less and less student pilots every year, as you can see via this AOPA study: http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2010/March/15/FAA-forecasts-dwindling-student-pilot-numbers
Add into the fact that many pilots are reaching the required retirement age on the airline side, and that big vacuum in the middle, and it truly means there will be a large pilot shortage for years to come. http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/14/airlines-face-worst-pilot-shortage-since-the-1960s/As aviation becomes inevitably more expensive over time, it may still lead to a decrease in the student pilots entering training, to the point that airlines are going to have to add some more incentives to sweeten the deal of the initial cost of training, if not offer some training outright of their own.
With less students, that means that there are that many more jobs available for my future career in aviation. Since its been more of a trickle then a full bleed, that means that once I obtain an CFI, I should have just enough students to get my by, but once I get to the next step in my career, it might mean that getting a job is as simple as walking into the interview (although I do not want to at all discount how hard it is to become a pilot, merely stating how big the shortage may be). As mentioned before, this should also mean a better deal for the beginning pilot, so it can almost be said that this is one of the best careers to be going into today.
Its a good time to be a pilot.
I agree with you there is going to be a shortage and the airlines are going to need to offer something. It is costly to get your ratings, which makes sense why some students may opt for another avenue.
ReplyDeleteMany European carriers will pay for all the initial training for many of their pilots. These pilots are recruited at a high school level, have all their training paid for, then are given a job in the right seat right around 300 hours. But this concept will no longer be feasible in the US based on the new ATP requirements. What would be a solution?
ReplyDeleteFlight training is ridiculously expensive. Especially now, during a pilot shortage, the industry needs people to be trained properly and long enough to be able to fly for the airlines, cargo, ect. Fortunately, there are ways to help pilots along there training, but to great cost in the future. The risk of taking out so many loans for flight training, is that the longer it takes to pay back these loans, the more interest is compiled. So you will end up having to pay that much money back eventually. Luckily, after a little while, pilots in almost any spectrum do get paid fairly well. However, at first, it will be a struggle since you are not getting paid very much and you need to pay off some loans, while trying to survive yourself.
ReplyDeleteI agree, flight training is extremely expensive. I think the solution lies on the air carriers. If air carriers want qualified pilots they should invest in the future pilots.
ReplyDeleteI agree training is expensive, which is why I switched to management, so what can we do about it? With the new hours requirements I do not see many people being interested in sticking it out to get a low paying job in the end. With all of the new regulations I wonder if we will be able to afford to keep airlines running and occupied?
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