Beleaguered airlines are finally starting to recover from a crunched labor force caused by COVID-stunted travel, but they're not in the clear yet, David Neeleman, JetBlue founder and founder-CEO of Breeze Airways warned. There are plenty of pilots eager for work—but not many want the labor-intensive title of “captain,” opting instead to retain the position as the less-stressful first officer.
“First officer pay has gone up so much that a lot of these people don’t want to upgrade to captain because it affects their quality of life,” Neeleman said during Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference on Wednesday.
