Commercial-pilot Opportunities Soaring As Major Airlines Expand


April 16, 1989|By Carol Kleiman

Fasten your seat belts: Jobs for commercial airline pilots are taking off.

An estimated 8,000 new pilots - a record number - are expected to be hired this year, according to the Future Aviation Professionals of America, an aviation career information service based in Atlanta. The organization reports there are 710,000 licensed pilots, of whom about 60,000 are airline pilots.

By the year 2000, the group predicts the United States will need 90,000 airline pilots.

That's why airlines are recruiting pilots and have relaxed training and hiring standards such as hours of flying time completed, vision requirements and educational background.

Jobs for airline pilots are cyclical - low in recessions and high in good times. Another factor driving the increased need is deregulation and the subsequent rapid expansion of the industry.

The employment picture looks like this:

- An estimated 25 percent of pilots flying for major airlines are expected to retire by 1997. The Federal Aviation Administration sets the mandatory retirement age at 60. The value of experience, however, was demonstrated recently by veteran United Airlines pilot David Cronin, 60, who managed to land a Boeing 747 after its cargo door blew open on a flight from Hawaii to New Zealand.

- The picture the public has of airline pilots as tall, white men with silvery hair is generally accurate. But the need for new pilots is opening up the skies to minorities and women, who now make up only 1 percent of the work force.

- Fewer military pilots are going into commercial aviation.

- Commuter airline pilots had an average turnover rate of 45 percent in 1987. ''The prime reason is the majors are hiring at a dramatic rate,'' said John Fredricksen, vice president of the Regional Airline Association.

The profession has long had a glamorous image, but commercial pilots earn their wings. The Occupational Outlook Handbook of the U.S. Department of Labor describes pilots as ''highly trained, skilled professionals. Most fly an average of 80 hours a month,'' or about 1,000 hours a year.

Airline pilots must have a commercial pilot's license, with an instrument rating issued by the FAA, and meet other physical and skills requirements.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 1986, the average salary for airline pilots was $80,000; for flight engineers $53,000; for co-pilots $70,000; and for captains $108,000.

Addressing the need for pilots, Kit Darby, executive vice president of Future Aviation Professionals, asks: ''Where are pilots going to come from? There are only three doors: the military, regional airlines or corporate pilots. And it's not that there are fewer military pilots to fill the openings, it's that there's a 10-fold increase in demand.''

Darby's for-profit company publishes information on jobs and offers counseling. It has 23,000 members, 17,000 of them commercial pilots. The firm has a job referral system for qualified pilots.

''The average new hire has 4,000 hours of flight time, and 90 percent have a college degree,'' Darby said. ''The majority have perfect vision. They have an excellent health profile and are non-smokers with low cholesterol.''

The Air Line Pilots Association, based in Herndon, Va., represents 41,000 pilots who work for 46 U.S. carriers, among them United, Northwest, Delta, TWA and Pan American.

''Basically, what's happening, as far as pilots are concerned, is that the economy has turned around and the airlines have gotten healthy financially and are expanding,'' said John Mazor, a union representative.

''At the same time, the average age of pilots for the major airlines hovers between 43 and 44.''

Mazor said the emerging shortage has ''swung the pendulum back somewhat, away from recruitment of military pilots back to the person who loves airplanes, hangs around them, sweeps the floors, learns to fly, becomes a private instructor, starts out with commuter airlines, builds time and experience and works up to the major airlines.''

There are ''a lot of opportunities now with smaller regional or commuter carriers, because they're having a hard time with turnover,'' Mazor said. ''There will be a continued strong demand for pilots throughout the 1990s.''

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