Regional airlines lower bar for pilots

Just thought you should know...the below clips are from the article posted at the link.

If you've flown on a regional airline like American Eagle or Atlantic Southeast Airlines with any regularity, you may have noticed that the pilots seem a bit younger.

It's not your imagination. Regional carriers, which operate flights for major airlines like American, Delta and United, have been slashing their minimum hiring requirements in recent years as they grapple with a growing shortage of pilots. The carriers have reduced required flight hours for job applicants by as much as two-thirds, and in a few cases have hired pilots with the minimum experience required by the Federal Aviation Administration for a pilot's license.

Airline executives say recruiting less experienced pilots is necessary because the pool of applicants is shrinking while demand for pilots grows. And many have increased training for new hires and assigned them more time flying with veteran co-pilots.

Traditionally, many pilots began their careers at lower-paying regional airlines with the hope of moving to a major carrier, and a bigger salary, in a few years. Most regional carriers used to require 1,500 total flight hours before an aspiring pilot could apply for a job. A portion of those hours -- usually about 500 -- had to be flown in a multiengine airplane; the rest could be in a single-engine aircraft like a small Cessna 172.

In just the past year, 14 of the 21 regional and commuter airlines tracked by the consulting firm Air Inc. have reduced the hours of experience a pilot must have at the controls of any type of airplane. Trans States briefly lowered its requirement to 250 total hours last summer before raising it to 500, said Kit Darby, the firm's president.

American Eagle has cut its minimum flight hours to 500.

"If you have just a few hundred hours and don't have any jet experience, you're looking at quite a learning hurdle," Rice said.

James Magee, an Eagle pilot and union spokesman, had 2,000 hours of flight time when he was hired in 1999.

"Our new pilots are exceptionally good pilots," Magee said. "But they're flying in very challenging environments, and there's really no replacement for experience."

Airlines are aggressively recruiting on college campuses and offering signing bonuses to new hires who complete their training.

Union leaders say improved compensation and benefits would help more than signing bonuses and lesser requirements for new hires.

"We have to offer them a career path, with pay and work rules, that is going to be attractive," Magee said.

A starting pilot at Trans States, a regional airline that flies for American under the name American Connection, earns $22 a flight hour, with 74 hours guaranteed a month, according to AirlinePilotCentral.com, which tracks pilot salaries. That translates to an annual starting salary of $19,500. A pilot flying 1,000 hours a year -- the most allowed under federal rules -- would earn about $22,000.

Bus Driver
Location: San Francisco, CA 94104
Base Salary $21,692
Bonuses $3,608
401k $1,569
also healthcare, pension, payed time off

Say again all after:

"We have to offer them a career path, with pay and work rules, that is going to be attractive."