Fewer Applicants Trigger Signing Bonuses

Pilots on regional airlines like American Eagle or Atlantic Southeast Airlines are younger than in the past. This is in part due to a retiring pilot pool, and fewer applicants causing the airlines to change their standards.

Regional carriers, operating for major airlines like American, Delta and United, have lowered their minimum hiring requirements recently to meet the challenge of a pilot shortage.

Some carriers have reduced required flight hours for new pilots by as much as two-thirds, and in some cases have hired applicants with the minimum experience required by the Federal Aviation Administration for a pilot's license, according to the For Worth Star Telegram.

Company’s say recruiting pilots with less experience is due to a shrinking pool of pilots as the demand grows. Many carriers have increased training, and assigned new pilots to fly right-seat with high time veteran Captains.

Pilot unions argue this trend could make flying less safe. "The rush to push pilots through training and into the cockpits raises obvious safety concerns," said John Prater, a veteran Continental Airlines pilot and president of the Air Line Pilots Association.

Prater spoke of the issue recently at a forum on aviation safety and security.

"New pilots today are going straight into the [co-pilot's] seat, and moving into the [captain's] seat in a hurry," he said. "And they're doing it in airplanes that are great machines but can be unforgiving."

Airline officials don’t think that safety is an issue, and say that have implemented better training for new hires, and increased their time under the wing of a veteran pilot.

"Anyone who raises safety as an issue has some other agenda," said Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association. "The airlines are spending a boatload of money on training and recruiting."

American Eagle officials assert the airline's new hires are competent and talented pilots. "We have the best pilots out there," said airline spokeswoman Andrea Huguely. "You can't just walk in from the street and say you want to be a pilot."

Regional carriers account for an increasing portion of the country's airline traffic. Half the flights nationwide are operated by regional airlines, Cohen said. The major use of regional airlines is in part because their flight crews are paid less, a savings passed along to the mainline carrier.

Pilots used to build their time at smaller air taxi operations, or by working for a flight school instructing, until they had enough hours to meet regional carriers' minimum hour requirements. Regional carriers usually required 1,500 total flight hours before a commercial pilot could apply for a carrier job. A portion of those hours -- usually about 500 -- had to be flown in a multiengine airplane; the rest could be in a single-engine aircraft.

Competition by the regionals with fast-growing corporate aviation firms, discount airlines, cargo shippers and foreign airlines for talented young pilots have raided the pool of pilots. These rivals often have better pay and benefits, and more stable work schedules.

Military pilot applicants have also slowed, said Paul Rice, a captain for United Airlines who is first vice president for the Air Line Pilots Association.

Bankruptcy and pension issues have "taken a lot of the glamour out of being an airline pilot," Cohen said. "There are just fewer young people who want to make a career out of this."

Wages are another issue. A starting pilot at Trans States, a regional airline that flies for American under the name American Connection, earns $22 a flight hour, with 74 hours guaranteed a month, according to AirlinePilotCentral.com, which tracks pilot salaries.

This equates to an annual starting salary of $19,500. A pilot flying 1,000 hours a year -- the most allowed under federal rules -- would earn about $22,000, according to the Star Telegram.

A void of pilots has led airlines to lower hour requirements in order to maintain flight schedules. In 2007 alone, 14 of the 21 regional and commuter airlines tracked by the consulting firm Air Inc. have reduced type hours.

Trans States briefly lowered its requirement to 250 total hours last summer before re-raising it to 500, said Kit Darby, the firm's president. American Eagle has slashed its flight hours to 500.

"If you have just a few hundred hours and don't have any jet experience, you're looking at quite a learning hurdle," Rice said.

Airlines often visit college campuses to recruit, and part of the deal is a bonus for signing, and completing company training.

"We have to offer them a career path, with pay and work rules, that is going to be attractive," Magee said.

Despite hiring efforts a lack of pilots has forced Eagle to cut flights from its winter schedule because pilots aren't available to fly them.

"It's one of several reasons, but that does play into it," Eagle's Huguely said. "The pilots are crucial, and without them, the planes don't fly."

FMI: www.alpa.org, www.jetjobs.com