The so-called “summer of travel hell” is behind us, but the ongoing national pilot shortage is still causing plenty of headwinds for the industry. Estimates vary, but one government estimate projects a shortfall of 18,000-plus pilots each year for the next decade. Mesa Airlines, a regional airline that flies for both United and American as well as cargo carrier DHL Express, says his company has a solution. CEO Jonathan Ornstein told Yahoo Finance his company is rolling out a program to provide would-be pilots with interest-free loans to help them accumulate the required number of in-air training miles to fly commercially in the United States. “What we've done is we just made an order for up to 104 smaller, light training aircraft, where we're effectively going to give people the opportunity to fly those aircraft, finance it completely. They don't pay us any money until they come to work. And the basic price, $25 an hour, is about literally 1/6 of what it would cost them to do it on their own. So it's just a terrific opportunity for new aspiring aviators to get into commercial aviation, which has now never been more lucrative,” Ornstein said. The response from eager pilots has been overwhelmingly positive, with nearly 70 new signups in one day, Ornstein said. “There are 25,000 or more folks out there who want to fly in commercial aviation but cannot build the time quickly enough.”<br/>
unaligned
Nigeria would consider buying China's newly-certified C919 passenger jet as it grows the country's fledgling carrier Nigeria Air to 30 planes by around 2025, Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika said on Saturday. Sirika said the new airline would have a mixture of Airbus and Boeing planes, but added the carrier is also willing to look at the Chinese narrowbody jet, which Chinese regulators certified on Friday. "We haven't looked at that C919. But if it's as good as the others then why not," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the United Nation's aviation agency's triennial assembly in Montreal, Canada. On Friday, China hailed the development of its first medium-haul passenger jet as the embodiment of the country's drive towards self-sufficiency, with safety approval awarded to a plane that aims to challenge Western aircraft giants for orders. The first C919 aircraft, designed to compete with popular single-aisle models made by Airbus and Boeing, will be delivered by the end of the year, state Xinhua News Agency said. It remains unclear when the plane might be certified by the United States or Europe, opening the way to sales in most foreign markets, but industry analysts say it will be up to a decade before China can seriously tackle the existing Boeing-Airbus duopoly.<br/>
Myanmar’s military government accused rebel forces in the eastern state of Kayah of firing at a passenger plane as it was preparing to land Friday, wounding a passenger who was hit by a bullet that penetrated the fuselage. Rebel groups denied the allegation. State television MRTV said the Myanmar National Airlines plane, carrying 63 passengers, was hit as it was about to land in Loikaw, the capital of the eastern state of Kayah, also known as Karenni. It said Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for Myanmar’s ruling military council, said the shooting was carried out by “terrorists” belonging to the Karenni National Progressive Party, an ethnic minority militia battling the government, and their allies in the People’s Defense Force, an armed pro-democracy group. “I want to say that this kind of attack on the passenger plane is a war crime,” he told MRTV by phone. “People and organizations who want peace need to condemn this issue all round.” MRTV said the bullet entered the plane’s lower fuselage as it was flying at an altitude of 3,500 feet about 6.5 kilometers north of the airport. It said the injured passenger was taken to a hospital. The state news agency released photos it said were of the bullet hole and the passenger being treated. Myanmar National Airlines’ office in Loikaw announced that all flights to the city were canceled indefinitely. Kayah state has experienced intense conflict between the military and local resistance groups since the army seized power last year, overthrowing the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.<br/>