Has Increased Student Flights, Hired Instructors With More To Follow

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona, FL has seen a significant uptick in enrollment in light of forecasts of a pilot shortage on the horizon and the growth of the airline industry.

Ken Byrnes, chair of the flight department, told the Daytona News-Journal that the school enrolled 1,330 new students for the current academic year, up 16 percent from last year.

ERAU has increased its student flights from 280 to 300 per day, according to Byrnes. It has added four training aircraft and purchased a new flight simulator to handle the increase. The university has also hired 20 new flight instructors, with plans to add 30-40 more in the coming months, bringing the total number of instructors to 200, he said.

Many of those instructors are ERAU students themselves, working towards the 1,500 hours needed to move on to a first officer slot at a regional airline.

The number is students is the highest it's been since 2001, when 1,500 students were enrolled in the program. The the events of 9/11 had a significant impact on the airline industry, and enrollment dropped.

Now, with regional carriers becoming more aggressive in hiring pilots, and some significant increases in starting pay, the career path is becoming more attractive, Byrnes said.

FMI: www.erau.edu