By Paul Waldmiller
Did You Know that airlines are now lowering their standards for hiring pilots?
The largest reason for lowering standards for hiring pilots appears to be a shortage of pilots. Since the implementation of a COVID-19 immunization mandate, there have been hundreds of pilots who have chosen to take an early retirement. Some pilots simply quit because of their disagreement with the jab mandate.
In an answer to the airline pilot shortage, airlines such as Republic Airways which operates on behalf of Delta, American and United Airlines, is attempting to reduce its pilot training requirements. This past April, the airline asked the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to hire pilots fresh from its training academy when they reach 750 flight hours, rather than the current, 1,500 hours required for pilots.
Not everyone agrees with the idea of pilots having less experience before flying commercial flights. Henry Harteveldt, President of Atmosphere Research Group was reported to state, “Optically, cutting the number of required flying hours may look like a riskier approach than allowing a healthy pilot to continue flying a few more years.”
In an attempt to alleviate customer complaints over many cancelled flights due to pilot shortages, Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci produced a video that was posted on YouTube. In the video he apologized to Alaska Airlines customers. “I hear everyday from friends, neighbors and guests about how disruptive our flight cancellations have been. Everybody wants to know—what happened? And what are we doing about it? Simply put, we had 63 fewer pilots that we planned for when we built our schedule.”