While so many young teens are being told to go to college as a means of being successful, millions of jobs are being left empty. Construction workers, architects, plumbers, electricians, and pilots are just hard to come by. We are currently in the middle of a enormous pilot shortage, and we haven’t even seen the worst of it.
The Large Pilot Shortage
To better understand this shortage, we need to take a trip back in time to understand how this all happened.
In the 1970’s, becoming a pilot was nothing to scoff at. The airline industry was in massive growth, and traveling was still a “luxury”. As opposed to some of the antics that we see on airlines today. To add, many young men out of high school were enrolling in the military. If a future pilot was able to complete their pilot training inside the military, they were essentially guaranteed a job after their deployment. This was a perfect situation for the airline industry to be in.
Fast forward to the late 90’s/early 2000’s, military enrollment rates began to fall. For those interested in pilot training, the responsibility and cost of that fell on the airlines directly. Then 9/11 happened which resulted in several airlines filing for bankruptcy. This scared many potential pilots away from the industry.
Fast forward to 2018, we are in the middle of the fourth industrial revolution, that being software and technology. The job popularity for pilots is decreasing severely. Even though air travel will double over the next 20 years according to the Air Transport Association.
Reasons For The Pilot Shortage in 2018:
There are many reasons to detail as to why there is a pilot shortage in 2018. However, my largest arguments are the following…
- Airlines are not paying enough to keep people interested in the profession. Salaries have actually stayed around steady since the 1970’s.
- This is considered a “blue collar” job, as it doesn’t require a degree.
- This career also requires full dedication and a “lifestyle” of sorts. Many people want work/life balance.
At the end of the day, this affects every single traveler, including you and I. Flights are becoming cancelled because of a lack of pilots across the country, especially in smaller regional airports.
If air travel continues to grow at the rate that it is, and their aren’t enough pilots to get us from point A to point B, we are in for a bit of a mess.
What do you think the ‘real’ issue is? Do you have an idea for a solution? Let’s hear it in the comments!
Points With a Crew has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Points With a Crew and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
One massive consideration that you hadn’t mentioned is the expense of pilot training. My niece is in college to become a pilot. Even with very substantial financial aid, she’ll have over $200,000 in loans for school and required certifications before she can fly for an airline. That’s an enormous amount, even with recently improving starting pay. If she can pay off her loans in a decade of flying, she’ll be luckier than most.
That is a huge financial burden. After interest, my degree will have cost me $100,000+.
Airlines need to find a way to make the “path” easier, without compromising skill.
There is so many misinformation in your post , it is pathetic…
1) middle of a enormous pilot shortage. Thre is no pilot shortage. As many people are interested, but you can’t expect to pay $100,000 to become a pilot and live teh first year almost on food stamps
2) the responsibility and cost of that fell on the airlines directly. Blatantly false. With teh exception of a few airlines in Europe and Asia, airlines are almost never paying for initial training
3) This is considered a “blue collar” job, as it doesn’t require a degree. Try to apply at DL, AA, UA, AF, LH without a degree. Blatantly false… AGAIN
3) The job popularity for pilots is decreasing severely. Source?
4)This career also requires full dedication and a “lifestyle” of sorts. Many people want work/life balance. Possibly but these jobs are getting scarse.
Can you just spend 10min doing a litterature review / background search before writing these nonsense? Seriously! On par with CNN / FOX..
Minos, to address your counter claims…
1) Just like teachers, there is an enormous shortage because of the lack of pay and value the airlines give to pilots. If they made the job more “worth it” they wouldn’t have the issues they are having.
2) Airlines in past were paying for training. Nowadays it falls on the pilot to burden the cost.
3) Being a pilot is considered a “blue collar” job. It isn’t absolutely required to have a degree, but now with trends, I do agree it will be much more difficult.
4) Well a shortage is correlated with popularity in my eyes. But for further reference, here is an article about people dropping out of pilot school. http://www.boldmethod.com/blog/lists/2016/12/11-reasons-why-student-pilots-drop-out-of-training/
5) Not sure what your argument is here, but being a pilot IS a lifestyle. Constantly on the road and not at home in my mind IS a lifestyle.
I appreciate your critique.
Lets also not forget that the airlines have brought this upon themselves to a certain extent. They manage short-term, not long-term on operational expenses. When the economy or their corporate financials are down, the corporate short vision bean-counters will lay off pilots to reduce costs. Pilots are an expense, not an asset in their minds. Many of those laid off pilots never come back when (surprise) when the economy comes back and the airline needs them.
I 100% agree. This post isn’t to feel sorry for the airlines. If anything, they need to work to provide even more value to their pilots. Or situations like this will make their business that much more difficult.
I’m not seeing the premise of this post supported. The link to the external source reports about a computer glitch for 1 airline causing scheduling issues for a limited window of time. It doesn’t make a case for an ongoing industry wide shortage of pilots. Maybe that exists(?), but you don’t provide any evidence of that here.
If you google “pilot shortage”, you will see an abundance of supportive evidence.
Sure, I’ll do that. But my point is that you really should have supportive evidence of your headline somewhere in your post. Your readers who may not have background on the topic shouldn’t have to go hunting for evidence of your premise. Your post is less credible without it.