Wsj pilot shortage

The airline is the sole carrier on those routes , which include such

towns as James town, N.D., and Mason C ity, Iowa. It s aid it hopes to

resume flights when it can "rebuild our s taff of pilots in order to

provide reliable service."

Meanwhile, United Continental Holdings Inc. s aid S aturday that it

plans to cut 60% of its flights from its C leveland hub by June. B ig

airlines have been shutting their smalles t hubs for financial reasons

for years , and United blamed the decis ion partly on weak demand in

C leveland, which it s aid hasn't been profitable in more than a

decade.

But United also s aid regional-airline partners "are beginning to have

difficulty flying their s chedules due to reduced new-pilot availability."

The shortage has forced United "to reduce [regional-airline] flying in

our mos t unprofitable markets , which unfortunately are out of

C leveland," Chief E xecutive Jeff Smisek s aid in an employee memo.

"Communities large and small will los e air s ervice due to the

shortage of pilots ," added R oger Cohen, pres ident of the R egional

Airline As sociation trade group. While the R AA has rais ed concerns

for the pas t two years , he s aid, the problem "has happened much

sooner and much more s ignificantly than anyone predicted."

Under congres s ional mandate, the Federal Aviation Adminis tration

began in Augus t requiring mos t newly hired pilots to have at leas t

1,500 hours of prior flight experience, up from the previous minimum

of 250 hours . The rule rais ed the cos ts and time neces s ary to train

new aviators . An additional FAA rule that took effect las t month gave

pas senger-airline pilots more res t, requiring carriers to hire about

5% more pilots to maintain current s ervice levels .

Meanwhile, thousands of s enior pilots at major airlines are hitting the

mandatory retirement age of 65 years old because of heavy hiring in

the 1980s and relatively thin hiring over the pas t decade. Those

airlines are hiring pilots away from the regional carriers , which in

turn are s truggling to find new recruits with adequate experience.

Mr. C ohen said that in the s ix months s ince the pilot-training rules

took effect, it has become clear that the regional airlines ' "ability to

continue to fly [their] s chedules will be a challenge." S tudents who

jus t graduated from aviation colleges "now need to go spend the

next two years flying around in circles " to build up 1,500 hours , he

said.

K it Darby, a retired pilot who consults on pilot-hiring trends , s aid the

airline indus try neared a pilot shortage in 2000 and again in 2007, but drops in demand after the 2001 terror

attacks and the 2008 reces s ion delayed the problem. Now, he said, with demand healthy and airlines

expanding, the new res t and training rules "pretty much guarantee a shortage."

2/5/2014 Airline-Pilot Shortage Arrives Ahead of Schedule - WSJ .com

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R e lated

United Continental to Cut in Cleveland Hub

Mr. Darby forecas ts 2,650 pilot retirements at major airlines in

2020, compared with 560 retirements in 2012. In response,

big carriers are already recalling furloughed pilots and

s tepping up hiring.

United said las t fall that it intended to recall nearly 600 furloughed pilots , in part to replace the roughly 330