JackEllis

Warning to Airlines: Flight Instructor Shortage Could Create Long-Term Problems

It goes beyond flight instructors. In the US, primary flight training is paid for by the pilot rather than by the airlines. Attempts to impose user fees on small airplanes and to otherwise limit where and how they can fly is discouraging new pilot starts, and those new pilots form the pool from which flight instructors and future airline pilots are drawn.

In the case of user fees, the airlines are largely trying to make travel by private jet less competitive with airline travel and thereby get back some of the premium fare travelers that have put long security lines and crowded planes and airports behind them. In the process, they are killing off their farm team.

A private pilot may spend as much as $100,000 to get the experience they need to apply for an airline job. If the airlines ever have to start taking on the job of training primary flight candidates, these cost will fall squarely on them.