Discount Airlines Continue to Hire Pilots

Discount airlines continue to hire new pilots to satisfy their continuing strong growth.  In many cases, they have reduced their flight-hour requirements for first officer hiring, allowing more pilots with lower levels of experience to be hired and jump-start their careers.

JetBlue plans to increase its capacity 28% to 30% this year as it takes delivery of 35 new planes; the airline's growth will be primarily domestic, with a greater focus on short-to-medium-haul flights, the company said in a recent Wall Street Journal article.  Southwest, which has remained consistently profitable as a domestic-only airline, is planning on an 8% expansion this year.

Newer planes mean an airline can expand by flying more hours without the cost of running older aircraft.  A newer fleet is also typically more fuel-efficient, saving additional dollars.   

U.S. Pilots Sign On At Airlines Worldwide

U.S. pilots are now working in far reaches of the world to fulfill the booming worldwide need for pilots.  Commercial aviation is expanding most rapidly in China, India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.  As these regions have grown more affluent and loosened aviation restrictions, travel demands have soared.  New airlines have started up, existing carriers are adding routes, and hundreds of new jets are on order, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

So, like British and Australian pilots who long have plied their trade worldwide, more U.S. pilots are taking their skills offshore -- often with better salaries and benefits than domestic airlines are offering.  U.S. pilots are working as far afield as Bolivia, China, Qatar, and Vietnam.  Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways and Singapore Airlines are hiring more Americans, as are carriers in Taiwan and South Korea, and increasingly, in India.

This is the result of a growing global shortage of trained commercial pilots.  Aerospace giant Boeing Company estimates the global jetfleet will grow to more than 35,000 airplanes in 2024, from 17,000 in 2004. Boeing pegs demand for new pilots at nearly 18,000 a year through 2024.  China alone will need more than 35,000 new pilots over 20 years, and the rest of Asia will need 56,500, the company estimates. 

The result: A global bazaar where experienced pilots go to the highest bidder.  Norwegians and Venezuelans are flying in China, Egyptians and Russians in India, Jamaicans and Iranians for a Japanese airline. Four out of five pilots at Qatar Airways are foreign.  More than 70 Philippine Airlines pilots have quit since 2003 for better-paying jobs elsewhere. India's fleet of startup carriers was so plagued by pilot poaching that the government last year began requiring pilots to serve at least six months at one carrier before moving on.

G.R. Gopinath, managing director for Air Deccan, a budget airline in India, says he's been recruiting 12 pilots each month from overseas.  Pilot job fairs in the U.S. have begun attracting recruiters for Chinese and Indian startups. 

One former US Airways captain, now flying for Emirates Airlines, says he enjoys a high salary and excellent benefits. He says safety standards are high, and the airline's 1,350 pilots from 70 nations speak fluent English.  He says pilots are "treated with respect in this part of the world. We're driven to work. We're put in four and five-start hotels on the concierge floors."

Phoenix East Aviation, a leading commercial aviation training academy in Daytona Beach, Florida, attracts students from all over the world.  Over 60% of current students are from countries outside North America.  Phoenix East Aviation has been training pilot candidates for airlines worldwide since 1972. See www.pea.com for more information.

Qatar Airways Named Airline of the Year in Dubai

Qatar Airways is celebrating being named Airline of The Year at the annual Middle East and North Africa (MENA) travel awards in Dubai held this month.  The airline, one of the youngest in the region, also announces the roll out of its new Airbus A340-600, for non-stop trips from Doha to Europe and the U.S. Qatar Airways is one of only four airlines in the world with a Five Star ranking for service and excellence awarded by Skytrax, the independent aviation monitoring agency, as a result of a survey of more than 12 million passengers worldwide. 

Now serving 70 destinations worldwide with 47 Airbus aircraft, Qatar Airways is expected to nearly triple in size over to the next years to 110 aircraft.  The airline plans to acquire up to 80 aircraft in orders worth US$16 billion.

United Announces Middle East Expansion

United Airlines has just announced an expansion of its global networks into the fast-growing Middle East region of the world.  UA has plans to offer customers three new weekly flights between Washington, D.C. and Kuwait City.  This new service is planned to begin later this year. 

John Tague, United's Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer, recently told eTurboNews, a global travel industry newsletter, "Lauching service to Kuwait further demonstrates our commitment to expanding our global network, bringing our passenger and cargo customers closer to the world's key economic centers."  United currently operates about 3,700 flights each day to more than 210 U.S. and international destinations.  United 57,000 employees reside in every U.S. state and in countries throughout the world.

Impressive U.S. Regional Carriers Stats

The U.S. regional airline market continues to be strong.  American Eagle, SkyWest Airlines (operating as Delta Connection and United Express carrier) and ExpressJet (operating as Continental Express) were ranked as the three largest regional carriers, in terms of passenger enplanments during 2005. The top 20 regional airlines transported 97.1% of the industry's pasengers and flew 98.7% of the industry's revenue passenger miles.

For the first six months of 2005, U.S. regional airlines carried 73.1 million passengers, flew 31.53 billion revenue passenger miles, and completed 2.6 million departures.

Pilots Needed NOW and in the FUTURE

The commercial aviation industry is in an incredible growth spurt all over the world -- and this strong growth is estimated to continue until at least 2023.  What a great time to train to be a commercial pilot: Low-fare carriers are starting up all over the world, turboprops are making a comeback and ultra-light jets have not even started to make their expected big impact. India and Mexico, and of course China, are expanding at an exceptionally rapid rate.

Alteon Training's vice-president of airline training, Captain Paul Hinton, in a recent issue of Regional Airline World magazine said that the total global forecast is for 17,000 NEW PILOTS needed every year between 2006 and 2023. He continued: "We broke the world down by regions.  For example, looking at Asia, we took the current existing number of widebody and narrowbody aircraft and took the forecast for new fleet in 2023.  Using a crew ratio of six crew per widebody and four per narrowbody, we came up with a requirement of 26,912 pilots by 2023, which breaks down to demand per year of 2,530 pilots in Asia alone.  And that does not include China; that's broken out separately."

There has not been a better time for pilot candidates for over 40 years; it's been that long since the demand was anywhere near as strong as it is today -- and that strong hiring market is expected to continue for many years.  Hinton advised a young friend considering pilot training: "The future is brilliant over the course of the next 10 years, just brilliant."

If you are interested in becoming a commericial pilot, get information from a flight school that trains US and International students.

Continental Airlines Announces Expansion

Continental Airlines will increase its domestic mainline capacity nearly 4% this year over last year.  In domestic and international mainline operations combined (not including regional-carrier operations), Continental will increase nearly 8% this year.

Like other traditional U.S. carriers, Continental Airlines is facing high fuel prices and stiff competition from low-cost carriers such as JetBlue and Southwest.  However, unlike some other traditional airlines, Continental is expanding faster this year domestically than any of its largest competitors.