United cut regional routes due to pilot shortage: CEO

United Airlines was forced to cut service to 11 secondary cities across the midwestern USA beginning in January due to the pilot shortage, the company’s chief executive officer says. The Chicago-based carrier in the past weeks announced it would end flights to smaller cities including College Station (Texas), Colombia (Missouri), Lansing (Michigan) and and Evansville (Illinois), Twin Falls (Idaho) from its hubs Denver, Chicago and Houston. At the time, the carrier said the cuts were due to “changes in the long-term sustainability of several of our regional routes”. “It’s down to pilots,” Scott Kirby said Wednesday. “The pilot shortage is now real, we don’t have enough pilots to fly all the airplanes. It’s very simple.” The coronavirus pandemic in 2020 accelerated pilot retirements across the industry as airlines cut costs, shed staff and put aircraft into long-term storage. Now, as the industry quickly returns to pre-pandemic levels, cracks are beginning to show in the airlines’ planning. Industry experts say that regional airlines like SkyWest, CommutAir and Air Wisconsin will suffer the most from the new pilot shortage. Generally, regionals pay lower salaries than the major carriers, and pilots fly smaller aircraft. As a result, these regional carriers are now offering up to $30,000 in signing bonuses to attract pilots to join their teams. <br/>