If you’ve ever considered becoming a pilot, now may be the perfect time to make your dream a reality.
Regional airports are having a tough time finding enough pilots to fly their planes. Will Strieder, the chief flight instructor at Hub City Aviation, said the pilot shortage is everywhere and there are a couple reasons why.
“The Vietnam era of pilot that came out of the military is close to retirement age,” said Strieder.
The number of hours of pilot training jumped from 250 to 1,500 hours of expensive training, but Strieder said you should not let that discourage you.
“You could look to almost make that back your first year of work, so a lot of the starting airlines are starting at $65,000 a year,” Strieder said.
“Spend thousands upon thousands to get trained up on it. And once you get on the airlines, you’re golden for the next 20-30 years until you retire,” said Tyler Napier, a pilot in training.
Some regional airports are already cutting flights because of the shortage.
“Like a place like Lubbock, we might not be able to have 3 or four flights on American Eagle if we don’t have pilots to man those flights,” said Strieder.
He has 15 years of experience as a flight instructor, and he said he doesn’t know why someone wouldn’t want to fly.
“We went above the clouds and the first thing I said was ‘God’s Country.’ It was just beautiful,” said Napier.
Strieder also says legacy carrier airlines like American, United and Delta don’t have a pilot shortage, but you could still end up working for them because they’re taking the best pilots from regional airlines.
