Shortage of Pilots in the U.S.A. means more opportunities for you!
The trend about the shortage of pilots in the U.S. is no more a tale to joke about. Pilots shortage will precipitously restrict the options of future air travel for consumers as airlines are forced to reduce service on, or drop some routes entirely because they won’t be able to find enough pilots to cover all the flying they want to offer and that consumers would like.
It has been told that in the next two decades, passenger and cargo airlines around the world are expected to buy 41,000 new airliners. And with the study of Boeing and Airbus, it has been predicted that over 617,000 new pilots will be needed to fly them. This numbers cannot bicker because economies and communities are growing, airline fleet numbers are expanding swiftly, and over the next 20 years, projections show that, at the current rate of pilots entering the profession, there won’t be enough pilots to fly them.
This huge number can only be achieved by how many current pilots will leave their job in the next 10 years. Well, it is known that there is a mandate for retirement for pilots at age 65 based on security reasons. Which means more than 42% U.S. airlines current crop of pilots retirement will rise abruptly in 2021, which is about 22,000 as stated by Cowen & Company. In 2036 as Boeing has estimated, the U.S. request for new commercial pilots would be around 117,000. This reveals the total sum of 16 new pilots will be recruited into the U.S. airline industry everyday, a total of 5840 in a year and these goes on constantly for two decades. In other to make this claim feasible, To put that in perspective, U.S. carriers combined never have hired more than about 5,000 pilots in a single year, and have done that only a handful of times over the last 40 years.
This is the greatest and the best growing career opportunity. If you have ever aspired to become a pilot, now is the time to make use of this golden opportunity. Because hiring 5,000 a year would be equal to hiring as many pilots in just three years as giant American Airlines, the largest U.S. airline and the largest in the world. If you yearn to become a pilot before the predicted revolution takes place, you have to be eligible by start pursuing your dream. This can be achieved by choosing a flight school, either by attending a college or University or attending the local airport fixed base operators (FBO).
The college and university flight training is usually one of the ways to be eligible which has its own advantage and disadvantages too. It is good to start with, you have a deep learning and study extensively in aviation. They get to fly regularly and have a controlled training program but generally, getting a degree in university for this program is usually very expensive and takes very long to complete the training/program. Local airport FBO training program, on the other hand, has its own pro and cons too. They provide a training program at your own pace, gives the liberty to fly at a small local airport without the fixed schedule found in college. But has it own disadvantage which is the frequent change in instructors and scheduling delay. Looking at this at a brighter angle, the change in instructor can also be a plus in disguise because you get to learn from different instructors and end up gathering different experiences.
Now you might have trouble knowing the right foot to put forward, but here is a big question and comes up most of the time: Do I go to college/university or start a flight school at a local FBO? There are lots of advantage and disadvantage to each like it has been mentioned, but most people come down to getting trained at a local FBO. This is because usually it is cheaper and you diverse flying experience and you can start working on your private pilot certificate. This is even better when you are determined and have a strong desire to become a pilot. Starting up at a local FBO help you get your feet wet before committing to a long term and potentially expensive program which is a good way to decide if you really like aviation.
REFEERENCE
https://www.pilotcareernews.com/truth-global-pilot-shortage/
http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/27/news/companies/pilot-shortage-figures/index.html
https://www.pea.com/become-pilot/
https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/archive/index.php/t-25066.html
