The reason there is a shortage and some airlines are having to have pay packages of $500,000 for experienced pilots is getting the experience pays crap.
—Some U.S. regional airlines pay $25,000 or less, according to the Air Line Pilots Association, representing more than 52,000 pilots in the U.S. and Canada.—
I don’t think $25,000 is too common, but even at $40,000, you think paying back private flight lessons is going to be cheap or easy? Some newly licensed pilots cannot find any work. Airlines want documented flight hours, nobody wants a new pilot, and jet fuel is expensive.
But every airline with jumbo jets wants the same limited pool of ex USAF guys who’ve been flying since their teens and are now late 30’s to mid-40’s and have spotless records.
The situation is especially bad now because the people most in demand would have started around 1990-1995, when the airlines were going down the tubes and half or more filed for bankruptcy. Also a period of USAF cutting back because of the end of the Cold War and base realignment.
