United, American CEOs say they face a regional pilot crunch
Regional affiliates of American Airlines and United are taking drastic measures to attract pilots amid an increasingly dire pilot shortage in the US. A shortage that has prompted United to cut service to at least nine smaller cities and may limit the recovery — and growth — of the industry next year. “Given all the accelerated [pilot] retirements that happened during Covid, and the fact that most airlines — including us — are growing a lot on the other side, the pilot shortage is now real,” United CEO Scott Kirby said Wednesday. “We don’t have enough pilots to fly all the airplanes. So the 50-seaters are at the bottom of that pile, and markets that rely on 50-seaters are the ones that are going to lose service.” The Chicago-based carrier has already confirmed that it will exit nine smaller cities — or 11 if you count the loss of US Essential Air Service contracts — almost exclusively served by 50-seat regional jets, including Bombardier CRJ200s and Embraer ERJ-145s. Cities losing United service include College Station, Texas; Evansville, Ind.; Lansing, Mich.; and Wausau, Wis. “While there is no shortage of people who want to be pilots — we have had to put some incentives in place for regional pilots,” American CEO Doug Parker said at the forum. While he did not go as far as Kirby as saying there was a pilot shortage, the fact that American is offering incentives to attract crews to its regional affiliates that operate American Eagle flights is indicative of hiring challenges. United Senior Vice President of Domestic Planning and United Express Ankit Gupta is still optimistic about next summer. He does not expect staffing to limit the airline’s ability to recover to 2019 capacity levels. But what Gupta did not say was that it is easy to recover top line available seat miles when more, larger mainline jets are added — United plans to take delivery of 48 new Boeing 737 Maxes in 2022 — even as 50-seat models are removed. “I’m really excited about … getting back to 2019 [flying] levels but with better product and better planes,” said Gupta on United’s Summer 2022 schedule. “Just getting rid of those single-cabin 50-seaters, especially in markets where they should not be flying — [I’m] really excited about that.”<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2021-11-19/star/united-american-ceos-say-they-face-a-regional-pilot-crunch
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United, American CEOs say they face a regional pilot crunch
Regional affiliates of American Airlines and United are taking drastic measures to attract pilots amid an increasingly dire pilot shortage in the US. A shortage that has prompted United to cut service to at least nine smaller cities and may limit the recovery — and growth — of the industry next year. “Given all the accelerated [pilot] retirements that happened during Covid, and the fact that most airlines — including us — are growing a lot on the other side, the pilot shortage is now real,” United CEO Scott Kirby said Wednesday. “We don’t have enough pilots to fly all the airplanes. So the 50-seaters are at the bottom of that pile, and markets that rely on 50-seaters are the ones that are going to lose service.” The Chicago-based carrier has already confirmed that it will exit nine smaller cities — or 11 if you count the loss of US Essential Air Service contracts — almost exclusively served by 50-seat regional jets, including Bombardier CRJ200s and Embraer ERJ-145s. Cities losing United service include College Station, Texas; Evansville, Ind.; Lansing, Mich.; and Wausau, Wis. “While there is no shortage of people who want to be pilots — we have had to put some incentives in place for regional pilots,” American CEO Doug Parker said at the forum. While he did not go as far as Kirby as saying there was a pilot shortage, the fact that American is offering incentives to attract crews to its regional affiliates that operate American Eagle flights is indicative of hiring challenges. United Senior Vice President of Domestic Planning and United Express Ankit Gupta is still optimistic about next summer. He does not expect staffing to limit the airline’s ability to recover to 2019 capacity levels. But what Gupta did not say was that it is easy to recover top line available seat miles when more, larger mainline jets are added — United plans to take delivery of 48 new Boeing 737 Maxes in 2022 — even as 50-seat models are removed. “I’m really excited about … getting back to 2019 [flying] levels but with better product and better planes,” said Gupta on United’s Summer 2022 schedule. “Just getting rid of those single-cabin 50-seaters, especially in markets where they should not be flying — [I’m] really excited about that.”<br/>
