Training troubles

United Airlines is herding in around 100 pilots per month as of February. United and other majors are plucking most of their pilots from the regional airlines. In turn, the regionals are having a hard time getting butts in their flight deck seats. And since the majors want the best pilots from the regionals, they are hiring instructors and check pilots who can’t be replaced fast enough to get new-hire pilots up to speed. The result is flight training backups and ultimately, flight cancelations because of staffing issues.

I talked to one pilot hired by Mesa Airlines in summer 2021. Because of the competitive nature of airline hiring, he chose to remain anonymous. What started as excitement to begin a promising airline career with meteoric progression through the seniority list eventually led to his resigning in frustration six months later. Mesa is not the only airline with training delays either. Students at Republic Airways, PSA Airlines, Envoy Air, and others also report training backups.

“John” sped through his indoctrination and systems training but was sent home for “two to three months” while waiting for simulator time. After four months with apparently no end in sight to the delays, frustration set in as the recently learned material and procedures were no longer fresh in his mind despite periodic reviews of manuals. Also worrying was the fact that simulator time was in such demand that if a student required an extra session to complete training, there was a good chance that candidate would be terminated rather than given extra time. A training failure early in your career can be catastrophic for future employment. Finally, John simply wasn’t building any meaningful hours to progress his career. Six months not flying is six months of lost seniority, pay, and benefits at your dream airline.

Six months not flying is six months of lost seniority, pay, and benefits.John started checking out other options and discovered that most regionals were experiencing delays, making it a metaphorical jump to another patch of not-very-green grass. John started checking out some corporate/Part 135 charter gigs and liked what he saw. More pay, nicer jets, better work rules, a similarly high amount of flight time, and a type rating. The downsides were not getting valuable Part 121 experience, having to deal directly with passengers, and taking care of flight planning, fueling, loading, and more. He’d also lose his $20,000 sign-on bonus that Mesa offered upon completion of initial operating experience. Alas, John started his life as a Part 135 Embraer Phenom pilot in March.

Regionals are in a challenging position now with the staffing issues, cancelations, and the fact that their major airline partners are taking a drubbing from customers about these problems. After all, it’s their name written on the side of the airplanes. Sure, the sweet hiring bonuses offered by the regionals get pilots in the door, but if they can’t be trained and placed on the flight deck, it’s all for naught. Personally, as a pilot who was hired by a regional in 2000, I see this as a major reversal of attitude toward pilots. I cleared $18,000 my first year and I was lucky. My airline had recently dropped its pay-for-training plan that would have cut that paltry pay in half! Food stamps, anyone?

Some speculate that major airlines will start bringing regional flying in house. Is now finally the time that the traditional outsourced regional airline model is scrapped? Doubtful, because the regionals typically do the flying the majors don’t want to do at far lower costs. But these recent conditions will likely lead to the majors revisiting relationships with their regional partners. Bringing the hiring, training, and flying in-house will secure the pipeline of pilots and streamline the training all the way from a student in a Cessna to Boeing 777 captain. Evidence United’s Aviate program.

While these are long-term issues, airlines must consider the short-term news regarding the meteoric rise in fuel prices and the invasion of Ukraine. How these events affect the airlines is likely to be a pressing issue. If cuts to flying are made because of rising ticket prices, it may untangle the training mess at the regionals on its own.