While the problem became abundantly clear during the rush of post-pandemic travel, the dearth of trained pilots dates back to long before those days.
The challenges around hiring for a job in which training costs typically surpass $100,000 while retirement is mandated as soon as one turns 65 have led to below-expectation hiring rates year after year and, in 2023, North American airlines were at least 12,000 pilots short.
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Airlines have taken a number of steps to attract flying talent. Delta Air Lines (DAL) , American Airlines (AAL) and United (UAL) have all launched pilot training programs that help students bring down the cost of their training while the latter also started offering conditional jobs to active-duty U.S. military pilots (while having a military pilot license does not give one the right to fly a commercial plane, United looked to recruit retiring military members by offering them jobs first and letting them complete training later.)
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Pilot recruiting programs are getting canceled (here is why)
But while announced to great fanfare, many of the pilot academies and recruiting programs launched by airlines have failed to pan out in the way they had anticipated.
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As first reported by Bloomberg, American Airlines is suspending its new pilot training from September throughout the rest of the year.
Pilots that are already slated to start with the airline will instead receive their training in 2025.
"This decision allows us to optimize our capacity and tailor our talent growth plans to best serve the current needs of our airline," American Airlines said in a statement.
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United, Delta, and Spirit Airlines (SAVE) have all either paused or stopped similar training programs at different points in the year.
The reasons for the pauses are similar and different.
United Air is more heavily impacted by the federal investigation into Boeing (BA) airplane safety. The resulting aircraft delivery delays at Boeing mean that, even if airlines hire pilots to fill the current gap, they will not have enough planes for them to fly.
'We've paused new-hire pilot class dates for the remainder of the year…'
While some airlines have profited from the boost in post-pandemic travel, others have also struggled with rising costs and uneven demand.
American Airlines' stock price is down 17% since the start of 2024.
In a further statement, the airline said that pausing the training is a way to moderate growth and gauge its financial situation until the end of the year.
Earlier this spring, American lowered its capacity growth outlook from 8% in the year's first half to 3.5% by the end of the first half of 2024.
Messages that American sent to pilots who have been given conditional job offers have started circulating on social media.
“Though you continue to have a CJO [conditional job offer] with American, we’ve paused new-hire pilot class dates for the remainder of the year as part of the ongoing evaluation of our commercial and talent needs,” the email that some pilots reported receiving from VP of Flight Operations Captain Russ Moore reads. “We expect to make decisions about pilot class dates for the first quarter of 2025 later this year and will provide you with an update as soon as possible."
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