Southwest tackles looming pilot shortage with broad effort to train future pilots

Southwest is seeking to head off a potential pilot shortage through a new partnership with several industry players that could provide the airline with up to 400 additional pilots annually. The effort aims to guide new pilots through initial training and help them land jobs as flight instructors or charter aircraft pilots, where they can accumulate hours before applying for jobs as Southwest first officers. US regulations from 2013 require new pilots to have 1,500h of flight time, a level some observers say has stymied the new-pilot pipeline. But accumulating hours is not the primarily goal of Southwest's new training programme, which is called Destination 225, vice-president of flight operations Alan Kasher said. Rather, the partnership will help ensure pilots receive training and experience that prepares them for jobs in an airline environment. "The quality of the training is the key," he said. "What we did is build our foundational principles into their training programmes." The carrier's partners in the programme include pilot training and flight simulator company CAE and several charter and private aircraft operators, including Jet Linx Aviation, XOJet and Swift Air. Another partner, aviation services company Argus, has reviewed the training that CAE and the charter partners will provide, and will evaluate pilots' performance through the programme.<br/>