The United Aviate Academy officially opened Thursday outside Phoenix, putting the school's first class of about 60 students on a streamlined path to a new career. United says its in-house flight training operation is the first for any major airline in the United States. Consulting firm Oliver Wyman says airlines worldwide need an estimated 34,000 new pilots by 2025 to meet growing demand and keep up with retirements, and United CEO Scott Kirby said the traditional models are not adequately feeding the demand. "The pilot shortage is real, but it's really real at the regional airlines," Kirby said. "If it's a crisis, it's a crisis for small communities." Traditionally, airlines looked to the military to provide a steady stream of qualified candidates. Civilian pilots had to come to the table with thousands of flying hours cobbled together on their own — the FAArequires a minimum of 1,500 hours of piloting experience to earn an Airline Transport Pilot certificate. "This is the model really about creating that economic opportunity to let people come in who don't have $100,000 to spend on their certification, but have great potential, great ability — to let them get through the whole process of becoming a commercial airline pilot," Kirby said. United says its academy costs $71,250, with scholarships available. Delta Air Lines recently dropped its requirement that pilot applicants have a four-year college degree, too. While the industry average pay for pilots is more than $190,000, according to the Labor Department, entry-level pay is notoriously low and training costs are high, frequently exceeding the limits of federal student loans. A 2018 report by the Government Accountability Office found cost to be one of the largest recruitment challenges for flight schools. Airlines that cut costs by asking veteran flight crews to take early retirement packages during the depths of the pandemic are now staffing up. United expects to train 500 pilots through the Aviate Academy every year over the decade.<br/>
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A baby was born on a United flight from Accra, Ghana, to Washington DC's Dulles International Airport on Sunday, according to United Airlines. The flight departed on Saturday and was 11 hours long, reaching the airport at 5:41 a.m. with one new passenger. A member of the flight attendant crew was a former nurse and assisted with the birth, United said. When the mother began giving birth, the crew acted quickly and assisted medical professionals on board to ensure everyone was safe on the flight. "We were especially thrilled to see the plane land with one extra, especially beautiful, customer onboard," United Airlines said. After the flight, the mother was presented with a blue United balloon and card saying, "On behalf of the United team at Washington Dulles, Congratulations on your new baby!"<br/>
Ethiopian Airlines is set Tuesday to operate the Boeing 737 MAX for the first time since a crash nearly three years ago killed all 157 people on board and triggered the global grounding of the aircraft. Flight 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi plunged six minutes after takeoff into a field southeast of the Ethiopian capital in March 2019, five months after a similar crash in Indonesia left 189 people dead. The twin disasters and subsequent scrutiny of the 737 MAX's faulty flight handling system -- known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) -- amounted to the worst crisis in Boeing's history. State-owned Ethiopian Airlines, the jewel of the economy of Africa's second most populous country, had long said it would be the last carrier to use the single-aisle jets again. The airline said the decision to resume 737 MAX flights came after "intense recertification" by regulators in the United States, the European Union, China and Ethiopia. A first passenger flight will take place on Tuesday, the airline has said, without giving details. The airline, which had four of the jets in its fleet at the time of the crash, provided a list of 35 other carriers that are also now flying them. "Our pilots, engineers, aircraft technicians, and cabin crew are fully prepared to take the B737 MAX back to the skies and we look forward to welcoming you on board," its statement said. The decision to wait as long as it did before flying the 737 MAX again was "really commendable", said Yeshiwas Fentahun, who was president of Ethiopia's independent pilots' association in 2019 but is no longer with the company.<br/>