Smaller airlines are all the regionals that are "branded" as the
majors. Majors fly Boeing/Airbus, regionals fly Embraer, etc...
Majors make $100K/yr to start with fairly aggressive advancement, strong
union, Regionals make $55K/yr to start. union?.. glacial advancement.
That's where you get from 1500 hours to 5K hours. And to get to the
Regionals you usually need turbine time, which can be tough to come by
in the private aviation world.
And the $55k/yr tops out usually less than the Majors starting pay.
But schedule choice is frequently the most important consideration as
that has more effect on lifestyle than most other aspects of the biz.
On 9/23/25 10:24 AM, Ken Hohhof wrote:
I have a customer whose son is a first officer for a regional
airline. He has been doing it long enough he gets first choice of
schedules, etc. He could advance to captain but doesn’t want to
because then he would be at the bottom of the seniority list again.
Isn’t military pilot a path to commercial pilot also? Do commercial
pilots typically graduate from an aviation program at a college? I
know someone whose son went to Embry-Riddle but I think he intended to
be something other than a pilot.
Remember the TV show “Wings”? That’s what I think of when you mention
a smaller airline. Probably half the people here weren’t born when
Wings was on TV.
*From:*AF <[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Robert
*Sent:* Tuesday, September 23, 2025 11:00 AM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] OT Some more stats
Liars, damn liars and statisticians.. I am willing to bet that none
of these are the true numbers. & I'll also bet that the United
number was a desired requirement, not a hard requirement, and they had
10 ways to hire around it going through a hoop or two. Most of the
major hiring is from the smaller airlines. You don't get the big
bucks until you survive on the small bucks. I have two friends rising
through the minor airlines right now and they are semi-prime
candidates but still going through all the hoops. There is also a lot
of washout on the minor airlines from pilots that end up finding more
money flying other paths when they need to support their families.
Air cargo and such.
On 9/23/25 9:46 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Seems airlines hire 5000 new pilots each year. (from one unknown
source)
There are 10,000 new ATP certificates granted each year but half
of them wash out or pause flying prior to earning the coveted 5000
hours that you need to become a first officer.
So, seems supply exactly equals demand (roughly). Other sources
are saying there is a shortage.
Now, add an artifical restriction, of that 5000 fully qualified
ATPs, your HR department says half have to be black/women.
Only 5% of that pool are women. So, there are 250 available.
Only 4% of pool are black. So that will get you 200.
450 total per year but your HR department mandated 10X that amount.
How will you fill that requirement? Only one way, reduce the
number of hours required. But even if you took it all the way
down to the 1500 hours it takes to the the ATP you will still only
have 900 available to fill 5X the requirement. And you will have
450 underqualified people sitting in the right seat in front.
I doubt the figure I found for needing 5000 new pilots industry
wide. I think it is low. I found another number saying that
United Airlines (the one that had that DEI policy for a while)
uses about 2000 new ones each year.
Seems that United uses 40% of the pilots each year? In any event,
that would make the numbers still work out in a similar fashion.
Mandate 1000 where there are only 450 available assuming your
company gets all 450.
It’s math bitch, not racism.
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