Airline resurgence

If you Google the phrase “airline staff shortage” or something similar you will see headlines like:

• Former NTSB Chair sounds alarm on airline safety amid staffing shortages (Fox Business)
• American Airlines cancels hundreds of flights due to weather and staff shortages (NPR)
• Southwest Airlines to Cut Flights Amid Staffing Shortages (Wall Street Journal)
• Foreign Pilots Eyeing US Jobs Amid Employee Shortage (Simple Flying)

Headlines like these only seem to be increasing in frequency as travelers across the globe want to escape lengthy pandemic restrictions and experience normal life again. To many, these airline disruptions may seem concerning for travel plans or the stability of the industry, but to military aviators, we see an opportunity.

Pilot shortages have been noted for decades as the demand for air travel and air cargo continues to outpace the supply of new pilots trained year over year. Considering rising fuel and insurance prices, civilians looking to join the aviation industry face having to spend a small fortune and bury themselves in debt trying to gain qualifications that military aviators get paid handsomely to earn in Pensacola. Compounding that with the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of hours of flight time military pilots receive that would cost yet another small fortune for civilians to match, the military has been a primary source of qualified aviators for the airlines for decades. But after the military downsizing of the 1990s, and as we’re seeing again at the end of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the military just isn’t producing as many pilots as it has in the past. This leaves airlines desperate to attract talent with bonuses and other benefits, often at the military’s expense, while leaving the DOD chasing its tail to stop the hemorrhaging of pilots.

Items that factor into a military pilot’s decision to leave for commercial aviation will always be specific to the individual, but there are common factors that drive aviators out of the military. Quality of life is always near the top of the list, often followed by lower work stress, living in a location of your choosing permanently, and sometimes just becoming disenchanted by the military itself. While many of these issues are inherent to the very nature of being on active duty versus being in a civilian organization – thus making them nearly impossible to address on the military’s part – for some aviators, the answer is as simple as the one thing the Corps actually can attempt to address: income. But this is also an uphill battle.

Simply put, the Marine Corps has difficulty addressing the concerns of its pilots, so it has turned to the Air Force model of throwing money at people. The problem is, that isn’t enough for us, and the equally desperate airlines are much better at leveraging incentives.”

Please read the full article here: Task & Purpose | Opinion | ‘The Marine Corps is Headed for a Pilot Exodus’ by Brent Kreckman