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Commercial pilot job market ready for a boom

Pilots coming up on a career decision will face a rosy job market because hiring at commercial airliners is set to take off big time.

After nearly a four-year drought of openings, airlines are predicting they will hire more pilots in the next decade than they ever have. Aircraft maker Boeing forecasts a need for 466,650 more commercial pilots by 2029 — an average of 23,300 a year. About 186,000 of the new hires — nearly 40 percent — will fly in the burgeoning Asia-Pacific region, according to Boeing, but more than 97,000 will have routes in North America.

“It is a dramatic turnaround,” said Louis Smith, president of FltOps.com, a website that provides career and financial planning for pilots. “Pilot hiring was severely depressed in the last three years. The next 10 years will be the exact opposite, with the longest and largest pilot hiring boom in the history of the industry.”

The demand for pilots will be so great that the industry could ultimately face a shortage, sparking fierce competition among airlines across the globe vying for candidates qualified to fill their cockpits.

“We’re already seeing in some spots around the world a shortage of pilots … and if you were watching this a few years ago at the last peak, you had airlines stealing from other airlines,” said Sherry Carbary, vice president of flight services for Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Seattle. “It’s a global marketplace for pilots, and … we’ll not have enough if that growth trend continues over the next few years. That’s something the industry needs to come to grips with. Where is our pipeline of new pilots going to come from, and how are we going to finance them?”

Making the grade

The hiring surge is being fueled by several factors:

• The rapid growth of travel in Asia, which is on track to surpass North America as the largest air travel market in the world;

• A looming wave of pilot retirements in the U.S.;

• Proposed changes to rules that could increase the time pilots must train, rest and work;

• Increasing demand for air travel within the U.S. as the economy improves.

U.S. carriers had 4.9 percent more pilots in 2010 than 2009, with much of the increase fueled by low-cost carriers that are continuing to expand, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Low-cost airlines such as Southwest, Virgin America and AirTran increased their pilot staffing 11.2 percent in 2010 over 2009, while regional carriers increased their pilot numbers by 4.9 percent. Major network airlines, however, saw their pilot workforce drop 1.3 percent last year, according to the bureau.

The cost of the fuel has spooked a few carriers,” Smith said, noting that the massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan have also had some impact. But, he said, the industrywide hiring explosion is “still on track.”

A perennial source for many airlines is the military.

About 45 percent of the 6,100 pilots at Southwest Airlines are veterans or reservists, many of whom are former airmen, according to Rocky Calkins, a former F-15 pilot who now is Southwest’s pilot hiring manager. Of the 600-plus pilots at Frontier Airlines, about 35 percent are veterans, said operations director Jim Colburn.

Despite the high percentage of military aviators at Southwest, Calkins said he has seen the number coming from the Air Force drop because many airmen simply can’t meet the minimum pilot-in-command hours needed to land the job. Southwest requires its pilots to have 1,000 flying hours.

Some Air Force pilots are getting 800 flying hours before they get transferred to fly unmanned vehicles, Calkins said.

“It’s very hard for guys to meet that 1,000-hour mark in one tour,” he said.

For the pilots who do have enough time under their belts, their military service is a huge benefit with Southwest, Calkins said. Airmen have college degrees that are “hugely desired” and years of solid leadership experience that bodes well for them moving from co-pilot to pilot.

Real money — eventually

A commercial pilot’s pay is different from an Air Force pilot’s pay.

At Frontier, Colburn said, an entry-level flier starts at about $37.50 per hour. Most, though, do not work regular 40-hour weeks in the beginning. They are guaranteed to be paid at least 75 hours a month, Colburn said, but they are not guaranteed they will be flying that same amount of time. When Colburn started flying, for example, he spent 80 hours in the air one month and 23 hours flying the next month.

The pay scale also varies from platform to platform and from airline to airline, but most Air Force pilots earn less when they take a commercial job.

The average starting salary for a pilot at a small regional carrier, where most pilots get their start, is roughly $21,000 a year. The most senior captain, flying the largest plane at a major airline, typically makes more than $186,000 a year, according to FltOps.com.

Even though the civilian pilot hiring picture is perking up, the Air Force isn’t overly concerned.

The Air Force is having no problem retaining airmen right now. High retention, in fact, is driving tough force-trimming programs, said spokesman Maj. Joel Harper. Retention for fighter pilots with more than 17 years of rated service is the highest since 2004 and second-highest in the last 20 years.

But if there’s competition for its pilots, the Air Force is ready to sweeten the pot, Harper said.

There’s the “natural call to serve” among Air Force pilots, Harper said, and cold hard cash — bonuses of up to $25,000 for qualified aviators.

Reporter Charisse Jones of USA Today contributed to this story.